Module Identifier MBM1810  
Module Title QUANTITATIVE METHODS (OPTIMISATION)  
Academic Year 2001/2002  
Co-ordinator Dr Jane Pearson  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Lecture   2 lectures each week and tutorials/example classes as required. Each student is required to attempt regular assignments.  
Assessment Exam     100%  

Aims


The purpose of the course is to demonstrate the usefulness of quantitative methods in situations that arise in industry and business. The underlying mathematics for such things as optimisation of functions representing profit, costs, etc; equilibrium states for supply and demand; relationships between functions such as average, total and marginal cost/revenue; and calculations for investment problems are described in relation to the appropriate topic. The emphasis throughout is on the application of mathematical techniques to situations that arise in business and industry and the ability to make appropriate deductions from the results.

Module objectives / Learning outcomes


On successful completion of the course students should:


understand the concept of a mathematical function and be able to handle polynomial functions of low degree;
be able to sum geometric series and solve investment and lending problems;
understand the characteristics of supply functions and demand functions;
understand the concept of equilibrium and be able to determine the stability of an equilibrium;
understand the meaning of a derivative and be able to differentiate a given function;
be able to find the maxima and minima of a function of one and two variables;
be able to integrate simple functions and understand the relationship between an integral and the area under a curve;
understand and apply the concepts of marginal, total and average cost and revenue functions;
be able to solve simple linear programming problems graphically and to understand the Simplex method

Reading Lists

Books
Hoffmann, LD and GL Bradley,. (1996) Calculus for Business, Economics, and the Social and Life Sciences. 6th. McGraw-Hill
Curwin, J and R Slater. (1991) Quantitative Methods for Business Decisions. 3rd. Van Nostrand Reinhold