A job has an 80% learning curve.If the first unit took 50 hours to complete, the third unit should take roughly how many hours?
A)40
B)36
C)35
D)32
E)10

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

We can use the learning curve formula to solve the problem:

Y = aX^b

Where:
- Y is the time it takes to complete a unit
- X is the cumulative number of units produced
- a is the time it takes to complete the first unit
- b is the learning rate (in decimal form)

In this case:
- a = 50 hours
- b = log(0.8)/log(2) = -0.3219 (since the learning curve is 80%, the learning rate is 0.8^(1/2) = 0.8944; taking the logarithm base 2 gives b)

To find the time it takes to complete the third unit (X = 3), we can plug it into the formula:

Y = 50 * 3^(-0.3219)
Y ≈ 35.2 hours

Therefore, the best choice is C, which is closest to the calculated answer of 35 hours.

A Job Has an 80% Learning Curve