=8-16 (Material blending problem) Amalgamated Products has just received a contract to construct steel body frames for automobiles that are to be produced at the new Japanese factory in Tennessee. The Japanese auto manufacturer has strict quality control standards for all of its component subcontractors and has informed Amalgamated that each frame must have the following steel content:

Material Minimum Percentage Maximum Percentage Manganese 2.1 2.3 Silicon 4.3 4.6 Carbon 5.05 5.35 Amalgamated mixes batches of eight different available materials to produce one ton of steel used in the body frames. The table on this page details these materials.

Formulate and solve the LP model that will indicate how much each of the eight materials should be blended into a 1-ton load of steel so that Amalgamated meets its requirements while minimizing costs.