Bill can paint either two walls or one window frame in one hour.?

Question

In the same time, Frank can paint either three walls or two window frames. To minimize the time spent painting, who should specialize in painting walls, and who should specialize in painting window frames?

Answer 1

Bill should paint walls, as his opportunity cost for painting walls is .5 frames per wall. Frank's opportunity cost for painting walls is .66 frames per wall. Therefore, Bill has a competitve advantage in producing walls.

Likewise, Frank should paint window frames. His opportunity cost is 1.5 walls per frame. Bill's opportunity cost is 2 walls per frame. Therefore, Frank has a competitive advantage in producing window frames.

To maximize output, actors should specialize in the area in which they have a competitive advantage. Trade takes care of the rest.

Answer 2

just assign some numbers of walls & frames to paint
say you have four walls and four frames
if bill works on walls and frank on frames
it would take bill and frank would both finish painting in two hours
but if bill painted frames and frank painted walls
frank would finish in less than two hours then sit doing nothing for two more hours watching while bill continued paint the frames. (bill would take four hours to paint the frames)

Answer 3

Frank is 100% faster at windows, and 50% faster at walls. He should specialize at windows to enhance the team.

Answer 4

very confusing situation. browse into the search engines. that will could actually help!