The electric field near the surface of Earth points downward and has a magnitude of 130 N/C.

(a) Compare the upward electric force on an electron with the downward gravitational force.

____upward force/ downward force

(b) What magnitude charge should be placed on a penny of mass 6 g so that the electric force balances the weight of the penny near Earth's surface?

C

a) Describe how a circular turn (or a circular coil) constitutes a dipole magnet.

b) Consider a solenoid of N turns with a radius r and length l, and carrying a current I. What is the magnitude of magnetic field inside the solenoid (but not near the ends)? Does this magnitude depend on distance the center of the solenoid? ?

c) What is the magnitude of magnetic field outside the solenoid (but not near the ends)?

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$2500: “A Fair Price for Hamilton”

NY Times, 23 October 2016

1. Gregory Mankiw

Consumers of goods and services do not typically wish that producers charged higher prices. But that was exactly my desire on a recent trip to New York City.

The story begins with a basic mismatch: I am a big fan of theater, and I live just outside Boston. While Boston is a good city for the arts, it is not the mecca that New York is. Unfortunately, I’m in New York only a few times every year. But when my professional or personal life takes me into the city, I always try to squeeze a play into my schedule.

That occurred most recently over Columbus Day weekend. I was in New York visiting colleges with my wife and younger son, who is a high school senior. Most colleges don’t give tours on Sunday, so we had Sunday afternoon free — perfect timing to see a matinee.

We had no doubt about what we wanted to see. “Hamilton” had received rave reviews from both critics and our friends who had seen it. We had much enjoyed “In the Heights,” an earlier musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the genius behind “Hamilton.” And as an economist, I have always viewed Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary, as one of the most important and intriguing founding fathers.

You may have heard that “Hamilton” tickets are hard to come by. The show is so popular that tickets from the theater sell out quickly and far in advance. On a recent episode of“Saturday Night Live (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” that Mr. Miranda was hosting, the television show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, jokingly asked him about getting “Hamilton” tickets. Mr. Miranda demurred.

We, however, had no problem getting tickets. Two weeks before our trip, I logged into StubHub, the online ticket marketplace owned by eBay. I found the performance we wanted, located some great seats and within a few minutes was printing our tickets.

The rub is the price. Including StubHub’s fee, I paid $2,500 a ticket, about five times their face value. Such a large markup is not unusual (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Now, at this point, some people might object to this price. Terms like “scalping” and “price gouging” are pejoratives used to demonize those who resell tickets at whatever high prices the market will bear.

To be sure, most people can’t easily afford paying so much for a few hours of entertainment. That is indeed lamentable. The arts expand our horizons, and in a perfect world, everyone would have the opportunity to see a megahit like “Hamilton.”

Yet there is another way to view the situation. It was only because the price was so high that I was able to buy tickets at all on such short notice. If legal restrictions or moral sanctions had forced prices to remain close to face value, it is likely that no tickets would have been available by the time my family got around to planning its trip to the city.

High prices are a natural reflection of great demand and scant supply. In a free market, in which private individuals can engage in mutually advantageous gains from trade, they are inevitable until demand subsides or supply expands.

The comedian Jay Leno (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. learned this lesson some years ago. In 2009, while the economy was suffering through the Great Recession, Mr. Leno, a car enthusiast, generously performed two free “Comedy Stimulus” shows for unemployed workers near Detroit.

Yet zero is not, as economists put it, the equilibrium price to see a live performance by Jay Leno. Some of the unemployed who received free tickets tried to turn around and sell them on eBay for about $800. When Mr. Leno learned about this, he objected, and eBay agreed to take down offers to resell the tickets.

But why should Mr. Leno have objected? Some unemployed workers, presumably short on cash, thought that the $800 in their pockets was more valuable than an evening of laughs. Similarly, the ticket buyers would voluntarily give up their $800 for a seat. The transaction makes both buyer and seller better off. That is how free markets are supposed to work.

The only person made worse off by the sale is, perhaps, Mr. Leno himself. He wanted to be seen performing before an audience of the unemployed. Doing a show for higher-income residents of Michigan might not be viewed as altruistic, even if it left the unemployed better off. In other words, Mr. Leno’s objection to the eBay resale was arguably a rationally self-interested act in that the resale impeded his ability to appear selfless to others and, even, to himself.

Although I don’t object to ticket resales above face value, and I think it is pernicious when others do, I was saddened by my “Hamilton” transaction in one important way. About 80 percent of what I paid went to the ticket reseller, rather than to Mr. Miranda and his investors.

In the past, Mr. Miranda has objected (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to the automated software that quickly buys as many tickets as it can, so they can be resold at a profit. But there is an easy way to put these resellers out of business: The theater can charge higher prices to begin with.

Such a move would surely increase the show’s profitability. From my standpoint as a theater consumer, that’s a good thing. Future talents like Mr. Miranda would find it easier to fund their innovative theater projects. And with more projects funded, those consumers who don’t buy “Hamilton” tickets — perhaps deterred by its uniquely high prices — would find a greater variety of other shows from which to choose.

1. GREGORY MANKIW is a professor of economics at Harvard.

Apex Art has been requested to prepare a bid on 500 pieces of framed artwork for a new hotel. Winning the bid would be a big boost for sales representative Jason Grant, who works entirely on commission. Sonja Gomes, the cost accountant for Apex, prepared the bid and calculated full product Costs of $121,000. Based on the company policy of pricing at 125% of full cost, Gomes gives Grant a figure of $151,200 to submit for the job.

Grant is very concerned. He tells Gomes that at that price, Apex has no chance of winning the job. He confides that he spent $500 of company funds to take the hotel’s purchasing agent to a basketball playoff game where the purchasing agent disclosed that a bid of $145,000 would win the job. He hadn’t planned to tell Gomes because he was confident that the bid she developed would be below that amount. Gomes reasons that the $500 he spent will be wasted if Apex doesn’t capitalize on this valuable information. In any case, the company will still make money if it wins the bid at $145,000 because it is higher than the full cost of $121,000.

Gomes suggests that if Grant is willing to use cheaper materials for the frame, he can achieve a bid of $145,000. The artwork has already been selected and cannot be changed, so the entire amount of the reduction in cost will need to come from framing materials.

A note regarding the bidding process:

The hotel would announce that it is seeking bids from suppliers interested in providing the artwork. The hotel would specify their requirements and a deadline for submitting bids. All interested companies, such as Apex Art, would submit bids in sealed envelopes. After the deadline has passed, the hotel company would unseal the bids and, assuming that at least one supplier submitted a bid within their maximum price (this is the info that Grant obtained from the purchasing agent which is not normally known to the bidders) would award the job. Generally, but not necessarily, the job is awarded to the company with the lowest bid.

Approaches to Ethical Decision Making

There is a large body of work stretching back thousands of years that discusses ethics. The list below is not intended to be either comprehensive or exhaustive. It is intended merely to provide a basic roadmap of the approaches that are commonly applied to business situations.

Long Term Self-interest (Egoism) - You should never take any action that is not in your or your organization’s long-term self-interest.

Personal Virtue - You should never do anything that is not honest, open, and truthful and that you would not be glad to see in the newspaper or TV.

Religious Injunction - You should never take an action that is unkind or that harms a sense of community.

Government Requirements - The law represents the minimal moral standards of society, so you should never take any action that violates the law.

Utilitarian Benefits - You should never take an action that does not result in greater good for society.   (cost vs. benefit analysis)

Individual Rights – You should never take an action that infringes on others’ agreed upon rights.

Justice - You should never take an action that would result in an unfair sharing of benefits or obligations.

Stakeholders are persons or groups with a legitimate interest in a company. Choose one or more as the most significant (but not all of them).

Questions:

1. State and describe the issues, if any, which may potentially violate ethical principles. Whose interests could be jeopardized due to the potential unethical behavior that you identified? Provide reasons why these stakeholders’ interests can be jeopardized.

2. What is Gomes’ rationale after Grant confides in her? Discuss the alternative courses of action that Gomes can take and the possible outcomes.

3. What should Gomes do, and why? Elaborate.

4. What can you conclude if Grant were to take Gomes’ suggestions, and what could be the consequences? What could be the possible consequences for taking the suggestion that you recommend?

Parker & Stone, Inc., is looking at setting up a new manufacturing plant in South Park to produce garden tools. The company bought some land six years ago for $5.8 million in anticipation of using it as a warehouse and distribution site, but the company has since decided to rent these facilities from a competitor instead. If the land were sold today, the company would net $6.1 million. The company wants to build its new manufacturing plant on this land; the plant will cost $13.3 million to build, and the site requires $850,000 worth of grading before it is suitable for construction. What is the proper cash flow amount to use as the initial investment in fixed assets when evaluating this project?

Parker & Stone, Inc., is looking at setting up a new manufacturing plant in South Park to produce garden tools. The company bought some land 12 years ago for $6 million in anticipation of using it as a warehouse and distribution site, but the company has since decided to rent these facilities from a competitor instead. If the land were sold today, the company would net $9.8 million. The company wants to build its new manufacturing plant on this land; the plant will cost $13.2 million to build, and the site requires $1,372,000 worth of grading before it is suitable for construction. What is the proper cash flow amount to use as the initial investment in fixed assets when evaluating this project?

Parker & Stone, Inc., is looking at setting up a new manufacturing plant in South Park to produce garden tools. The company bought some land six years ago for $3.6 million in anticipation of using it as a warehouse and distribution site, but the company has since decided to rent these facilities from a competitor instead. If the land were sold today, the company would net $4.1 million. The company wants to build its new manufacturing plant on this land; the plant will cost $18.1 million to build, and the site requires $950,000 worth of grading before it is suitable for construction. What is the proper cash flow amount to use as the initial investment in fixed assets when evaluating this project?

Historically, your company has calculated bad debts using an aging of accounts receivable. Near the end of the fiscal year, the company is in a cash crunch and needs to borrow money from the bank, using accounts receivable as collateral. The owner of the company knows that many of the accounts receivable are more than 90 days past due, resulting in net receivables equal to only 80% of total receivables.

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

• The owner asks you to change the method of estimating bad debts to a flat 3% of receivables. What should you do?

Historically, your company has calculated bad debts using an aging of accounts receivable. Near the end of the fiscal year, the company is in a cash crunch and needs to borrow money from the bank, using accounts receivable as collateral. The owner of the company knows that many of the accounts receivable are more than 90 days past due, resulting in net receivables equal to only 80% of total receivables.

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

• The owner asks you to change the method of estimating bad debts to a flat 3% of receivables. What should you do?

Your software company was invited to provide a proposal for a company in Australia. You currently have the cost in US dollars and need to convert the prices to the Australian dollar. Write a 2-part program using Ruby, Java®, or Python. Part 1: Write a function to gather the following costs from the user: Travel Cost: $9,800 Hotel Cost: $3,500 Rental Car Cost: $1,600 Labor Cost: $15,500 Part 2: Write a function to convert the costs from United States dollar (USD) to Australian dollar (AUD). Note: Look up the current USD to AUD exchange rate to use in your function. Test the program 3 times by providing different costs in USD. Provide the code and take a screenshot of the output, then paste the screenshot(s) into a Microsoft® Word document. Write a half-page response in the same Microsoft® Word document to address the following: Provide a manual for the user explaining how to use the program. Explain what type of user input validations you should have. What happens if the user enters a negative number? What happens if the user puts a $ in the input?