Question

7-36 Serendipity*

The three princes of Serendipity Went on a little trip.

They could not carry too much weight;

More than 300 pounds made them hesitate.

They planned to the ounce. When they returned to

Ceylon They discovered that their supplies were just about

gone When, what to their joy, Prince William found

A pile of coconuts on the ground.

“Each will bring 60 rupees,” said Prince Richard

with a grin As he almost tripped over a lion skin.

“Look out!” cried Prince Robert with glee

As he spied some more lion skins under a tree.

“These are worth even more—300 rupees each

If we can just carry them all down to the beach.”

Each skin weighed fifteen pounds and each coconut,

five, But they carried them all and made it alive.

The boat back to the island was very small

15 cubic feet baggage capacity—that was all.

Each lion skin took up one cubic foot

While eight coconuts the same space took.

With everything stowed they headed to sea

And on the way calculated what their new wealth

might be. “Eureka!” cried Prince Robert, “Our worth is so

great That there’s no other way we could return in this

state. Any other skins or nut that we might have brought

Would now have us poorer. And now I know what—

I’ll write my friend Horace in England, for surely

Only he can appreciate our serendipity.”

Formulate and solve Serendipity by graphical LP in

order to calculate “what their new wealth might be.”

Answer 1

Please find the solution in screenshot attached