Final answer:
In Dr. Ragsdale's optimization spreadsheets, red font color is typically used for decision variable cells, which are adjusted to optimize the solution.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Dr. Ragsdale's optimization spreadsheets, cells with a red font color typically represent decision variable cells. These cells are where the values are inputted or changed in order to find the optimal solution to the problem being analyzed. The color coding helps users to quickly identify different parts of the model, with decision variables being central as they are the elements that can be adjusted during the optimization process.
Other common color codings in such spreadsheets might include blue for constraint cells, which represent the limitations or requirements that must be met, and black or another color for objective cells, which calculate the value that needs to be optimized, such as profit or cost. Formula cells will often contain the mathematical relationships between the decision variables and the objective function and are critical for the spreadsheet to compute the optimal solutions.