Question

Suppose your marginal utility for meals at the campus cafeteria this week has fallen to zero. Explain what has happened to your total utility curve derived from consuming these meals. Now explain what will happen to total utility if you eat more meals at the cafeteria this week. Why?

Answer 1

Total utility is the sum total of utilities derived from the comsunuptuon of different units of a commodity. Marginal utility is additional utility when a unit more of a commodity is consumed.

Relationship between total and marginal utility -

i. When marginal utility is positive total utility increases.

ii. When marginal utility is zero, total utility is maximum.

iii. When marginal utility is negative, total ulility starts diminishing.

So when marginal utility for the meals at the campus cafeteria has fallen to zero then total utility will be at maximum. And if you eat more meals at the cafeteria then marginal utility will become negative after zero because of diminishing marginal utility and total utility will start diminishing. Diminishing marginal utility states that as more and more standard units of a commodity are continuously consumed, marginal utility derived from every additional utility must decline and becomes negative after a certain point of time