LOWER SECONDARY MATHEMATICS ITEMS

TOPIC: LINEAR PROGRAMMING

Linear programming is a mathematical modeling technique that helps us to find the best possible
outcome of a given particular problem. Its more useful in making decisions in business planning. We
use linear programming ideas in order to get best outcomes. It consists of forming inequalities from
the given story.

We build up inequalities from the given statements. This is done mainly by reading, interpreting and
connecting the related concepts in the story.

This topic requires the idea of identifying the intercepts of the boundary lines, finding and plotting
coordinates on a cartesian plane, shading out the unwanted regions and identifying the feasible
region. It’s from the feasible region that we can read the minimizing and maximizing points.

Below are some items that can guide us via this topic.

Item1:
On the same axes of a cartesian plane, show the feasible region obtained from the following
inequalities; y ≥ 0 , x ≥2 , 2 x +3 y ≤12 , x− y ≤5. Read the corner points of your feasible region and
hence
(i) Maximize the equation 5 x+ 6 y . (ii) Minimise 4 x+ y
item 2:
Determine the minimum and maximum values of c=x +6 y subject to the following constraints:
2 x+3 y ≥ 6 , 3 x−2 y ≤ 9 , x +5 y ≤20 , y ≥ 0 , x ≥ 0.
Item 3:

Your parents have given you the following instructions to make juice for sale while ensuring
minimum costs of production. The juice should consist of passion fruits and oranges and you should
start with a total of at most 25 fruits.

In order to make very good juice, you should make sure that the difference between the number of
passion fruits and oranges is at least 4. The number of oranges must not be less than 5.

Each passion fruit costs sh300 and orange costs sh200.

Task:

(a) Express the conditions for making juice as in equalities.

(b) (i) show the feasible region of the inequalities on a cartesian plane.
(ii) Determine the number of passion fruits and oranges you should use to minimise the cost
of production.

Item 4:

A business man in Mbale is going to produce two types of juice bottles, mango juice bottles and
orange juice bottles for sale.

He wants to make at least 2 mango juice bottles. He also wants to make more orange juice bottles
than mango juice bottles. Due to limited resources, he cannot make more 10 juice bottles.
The mango juice bottles are to be sold at sh1500each and orange juice bottles at sh1000 each. Due
to the high costs of production of the two bottle types, a profit of more than sh8000 must be
realized from the sales of these bottles.

Task:

( i ) how many bottles of each type should the business man make to maximise profits.

(ii ) what is the minimum number of bottles of juice he can make and still makes profits?

Item 5:

Your mathematics teacher is planning to transport not more than 400 students to a seminar in a
neighboring school located 10km away. He however doesn’t know how many trips each vehicle will
make so as to minimise transport expenses. The teacher discovered that if all students have paid,
their total contribution, should not be lees than sh360,000. The teacher has programmed to hire a
bus which carries 64 students per trip and a minibus carries 16 students per trip. The number of trips
made by the bus should be at least two and those made by the minibus should be at most 6. The
mini bus should make more trips than the bus and the charges will be Ugx40,000 and Ugx90,000 per
trip for the minibus and bus respectively.

Task:

(a) Help the to find out the number of trips each vehicle should make to achieve his goal.
(b) What is the maximum number of students the teacher can transport.

Item 6:

A tailor makes school uniforms for boys and girls. The tailor makes at least 80 sets of uniforms for
boys and not more than 100 sets of uniforms for Girls. Each set of uniforms for boys requires 4m of
material and each set of uniform for girls requires 3m of material. The tailor has at most 600m of
material to use. The tailor makes a profit of sh8,000 on each set of boy’s uniform and sh6,000 on
each set of girl’s uniform. The tailor is not sure of the number of sets of uniforms to make in order to
maximise profit.

Task:

(a) Express the tailor’s conditions as inequalities and equations.

(b) Show the feasible region of the tailor’s conditions on a cartesian plane.
(c) Help the tailor to determine the possible number of sets of boys’ and girls’ uniforms that
should be made to maximise profit. Hence, state the maximum amount of money the tailor
is likely to make.

Item 7: Mr. Okello is retired teacher from the government school. The government has been
deducting NSSF saving for the years he has taught in this government school and he is now having
120millions on his account. He wants to use his savings to construct single and double rooms for
rentals from which he plans to collect a minimum of sh540,000 monthly. He intends to charge rent
of sh90,000 monthly from each double room and sh60,000 monthly from each single room. He
wants less than 6 double rooms. He also wants to construct at most twice as many single rooms as
double rooms. It will cost him sh12millions to construct each double room and sh10millions to
construct each single room.

Task :
 (a) Write down mathematical statements which relate the number of double rooms and single
rooms.
(b) With the aid of a cartesian plane, advise Mr. Okello on how to maximise monthly rent
income.

Item 8:

Joram is a business man who deals in purchase and sales of mattresses. He is constructing a ware
house where he is to keep the mattresses. The floor of the ware house has its width shorter than its
length by 20m. and the whole floor occupies an area of 800m2. According to the plan, the ware
house has a ceiling whose height from the floor is a quarter the length of the floor.

Joram is going to use the ware house to keep two types of mattresses A and B. He is planning to
purchase at most 200 mattresses of type A and less than 100 mattresses of type B. Each mattress of
type A occupies a volume of 20m3 and each mattress of type B occupies a volume of 50m3 of space.
These mattresses are to occupy the total volume of the ware house.

Task:

(a) Help Joram to determine the dimensions of the ware house and hence its volume.
(b) (i) write down the mathematical relationships representing the number of each type of
mattresses Joram is to purchase. And represent them on a rectangular cartesian plane to
show the feasible region.
(ii) Help Joram to know the number of mattresses of each type that will be kept so that the
ware house can have the highest capacity of the mattresses.

Item 9:

A transport company has 8 lorries of 8-tonnes carrying capacity each and 5 lorries of 10- tonnes
carrying capacity each. There are 12 drivers available. The company was contracted to transport 480
tonnes of cement from the factory to a town on a given day. The 8-tonne lorries can make 6
journeys in a day and the 10-tonne lorries 4 journeys a day. The cost of using an 8-tonne lorry and a
10-tonne lorry is sh40,000 and sh60,000 respectively.

Task:

(a) In only four mathematical statements, represent the above information.

(b) Using a rectangular cartesian plane to show the feasible region, find the number of 10-
tonnes and 8- tonnes lorries the company used keeping its cost as minimal as possible.

Item10:

A company wishes to transport at least 480 boxes using a lorry and a van. A lorry can carry 60 boxes
at a cost of shs45,000 per trip. A van can carry 40 boxes at a cost of shs30,000 per trip.

There is shs600,000 available for transport. The number of trips made by the van should not exceed
twice the number of trips made by the lorry. The number of trips made by the lorry should not
exceed 10 and those made by the van should not be less than 3.

Task:

(a) By summarizing the information as inequalities show the feasible region on a cartesian
plane.
(b) Find the possible number of trips made by each vehicle so that the transport cost is
minimized and hence find this minimum transport cost.

Item11:

Students of Bulo parents’ secondary school are to travel to Entebbe airport for a tour. Whenever
such tours are organized, at least384 learners pay for them. The school wants to hire buses and
coasters to transport these learners. The number of buses in Butambala town do not exceed 7. It
costs the school shs750,000 to hire bus and shs450,000 to hire a coaster. A bus carries
64students while a coaster carries 48 students.

As a senior four student, help the school plan on how many buses and coasters are to be used
and find how much money is needed for the trip.

Item12.

Mrs. Mirimu is going to Make chapats and mandazi to sell in a given schools’ canteen on a given
day. She wants at least twenty chapats. Also, she wants more mandazi than chapats. Due to
limited ingredients, she cannot make more 100 chapats and mandazi altogether. Her chapats are
to be sold at sh1500 and mandazi at sh1000. To make a profit, more than sh80,000 must
collected from the sales of the day. Mrs. Mirimu is aiming at buying a plot of land priced at five
million near the school premises. She only works five days a week

Task:

(a) How many chapats and mandazi should Mrs. Mirimu make in order to make maximum
profit?
(b) What is the minimum number of chapati and mandazi she can make and still makes profit?
(c) Do you think Mrs. Mirimu will afford buying this plot of land in a period of 6 months and
remain with some money to maintain her canteen business?