Question

Use the table to calculate marginal utility, and then answer two questions.

Enter your responses as a whole number. No decimals, commas, or $signs. If you are entering any negative numbers be sure to place a minus ( - ) sign in front of the number.
Popcorn Consumption Total Utility Marginal Utility
0 0 0
First box 20 Second box 35 Third box 44 Fourth box 49 Fifth box 50 Sixth box 40 b. With which box of popcorn does marginal utility first diminish?
c. With which box of popcorn does the marginal utility become negative?
d. If popcorn were free, how many boxes would a normal popcorn-loving consumer consume?
e. What is the total utility of the sixth box?

Answer 1

• b. The marginal utility first diminishes with the third box of popcorn. The marginal utility decreases from 15 (between the first and second box) to 9 (between the second and third box).
• c. The marginal utility becomes negative with the sixth box of popcorn. The marginal utility decreases to -10, indicating that the consumer's satisfaction or utility decreases with each additional box consumed.
• d. If popcorn were free, a normal popcorn-loving consumer would consume as many boxes as they can until the marginal utility becomes zero or negative. In this case, the marginal utility becomes negative with the sixth box. Therefore, the consumer would consume five boxes of popcorn.
• e. The total utility of the sixth box is 40.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate marginal utility, we need to find the change in total utility for each additional box of popcorn consumed.

First, we can calculate the marginal utility by subtracting the total utility of the previous box from the total utility of the current box.

For example, to find the marginal utility for the second box, we subtract the total utility of the first box (20) from the total utility of the second box (35). This gives us a marginal utility of 15.

Using this approach, we can calculate the marginal utility for each box of popcorn:

- Second box: 35 - 20 = 15

- Third box: 44 - 35 = 9

- Fourth box: 49 - 44 = 5

- Fifth box: 50 - 49 = 1

- Sixth box: 40 - 50 = -10