In: Economics
A Non-economic Example of Steady State: There is a well-known relationship between the amount of calories a person consumes and burns, and how much the person weighs. Consider the following relationship:
Suppose calories consumed depends positively on the weight of a person (increases as weight increases) and is given by calories consumed Cc= 14+0.02 W, where W is the weight of the person in kilograms. Calories burned also rises with weight, that is Cb= 2 + 0.18 W. The relation between change in weight, ∆W, Cc and Cb is given by: ∆W=Cc-Cb
a)On a graph where calories consumed and burned is on the y -axis and weight is on the x-axis, plot Cc and Cb
b) Define the steady state as ∆W= 0, that is weight does not change.
Compute the steady state weight and indicate on the graph
c) Suppose a person weighs less than the steady state weight. Will this person be gaining or losing weight? Explain in words using the graph
Answer a :-
Using the above formulas , we can formulate the following table :-
Using the above table , we plot the following graph:-
Answer b :-
The steady weight will be 0 when the calories consumed will be equal to calories consumed .
This means that there is no tendency for any change in weight
In the above graph the steady weight is where calories consumed are equal to calories burned that is 75 kgs .
Answer c :-
If the person weights below 75 kgs that is the steady weight then according to the table the calories consumed will be more than the calories burned ,this means he will keep gaining weight until he reaches a point of 75 kgs where he will be at a steady point .