A politician,who wants to receive the maximum number of votes,spends 9 hours a week speaking to various groups.The table below shows his estimates of how time spent with each group will affect the number of votes he receives: Based on the information above,how many EXTRA votes will the politician receive if he devotes one more hour to speaking engagements (i.e.,speaks 10 instead of 9 hours per week)?
A)150
B)180
C)200
D)380
E)none of the above

Question

A politician,who wants to receive the maximum number of votes,spends 9 hours a week speaking to various groups.The table below shows his estimates of how time spent with each group will affect the number of votes he receives:  Based on the information above,how many EXTRA votes will the politician receive if he devotes one more hour to speaking engagements (i.e.,speaks 10 instead of 9 hours per week)?
A)150 
B)180 
C)200 
D)380 
E)none of the above

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find the extra votes the politician will receive, we need to look at the marginal utility of an additional hour spent with each group. To do this, we calculate the difference in votes received between speaking 9 hours and speaking 10 hours, for each group:

- Business leaders: 310 - 280 = 30 extra votes
- Labor leaders: 240 - 220 = 20 extra votes
- Senior citizens: 160 - 150 = 10 extra votes
- Environmentalists: 130 - 120 = 10 extra votes
- College students: 80 - 75 = 5 extra votes
- Civic groups: 75 - 70 = 5 extra votes

Adding up these marginal benefits, we get a total of 30 + 20 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 = 80 extra votes. This means that if the politician spends one more hour speaking to various groups, he can expect to receive an additional 80 votes.

However, we need to be careful here, because the question asks for the "extra" votes the politician will receive from dedicating one more hour. This means we need to subtract the votes he would have received anyway from the 9 hours he already spends. Adding up the estimated votes for each group at 9 hours, we get:

- Business leaders: 280
- Labor leaders: 220
- Senior citizens: 150
- Environmentalists: 120
- College students: 75
- Civic groups: 70

Adding these up, we get a total of 915 votes. If the politician speaks for 10 hours instead of 9, he will receive an estimated 995 votes (915 + 80). Therefore, the extra votes he receives are:

995 - 915 = 80

So the politician can expect to receive an extra 80 votes if he devotes one more hour to speaking engagements, which is option B).

A Politician,who Wants to Receive the Maximum Number of Votes,spends