Hans can do 4 loads of laundry and type 6 pages per hour. Heidi can do 12 loads of laundry and type 8 pages per hour. Hans's opportunity cost of doing one load of laundry is _____

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To calculate opportunity cost, we need to determine how much of one activity is given up to do one unit of the other activity. Therefore Hans's opportunity cost of doing one load of laundry is equal to the amount of typing he could have done in the time he spent doing one load of laundry.

Hans can do 4 loads of laundry in one hour, so his opportunity cost of doing one load of laundry is equal to the amount of typing he can do in 1/4th of an hour (15 minutes). 
Hans can type 6 pages per hour, which means in 1/4th of an hour, he can type 1.5 pages. 
So, Hans's opportunity cost of doing one load of laundry is equal to typing 1 1/2 pages.

Hans Can Do 4 Loads of Laundry and Type 6