A multiple channel system has customers arriving at an average rate of five per hour and an average service time of forty minutes.The minimum number of servers for this system to be under loaded is:
A)2
B)3
C)4
D)5
E)none of these

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To determine the minimum number of servers needed to prevent underloading, we can use the following formula:

N = λT
where N is the number of servers, λ is the arrival rate, and T is the service time.

We know that λ = 5 customers per hour, and T = 40 minutes = 2/3 hour.

Plugging in these values, we get:

N = (5)(2/3) = 3.33

This means that we need at least 4 servers to prevent underloading, since we can't have a fractional number of servers. Therefore, the best choice is C, with 4 servers.

A Multiple Channel System Has Customers Arriving at an Average