Are most mutually exclusive capital budgeting projects equally risky? If you think about a firm as a portfolio of many different kinds of investments, how can the acceptance of a project change a firm's overall risk?

MTV's Real Word is considering three cities for their new season: Amsterdam (A), Rio de Janeiro (R), or Vancouver (V). Programming executives and the show's production team vote to decide where the new season will be taped. The winning city is to be determined by the plurality method. The preference table for the election is shown.

$$\begin{array}{|l|c|c|c|c|} \hline \text{Number of Votes} & 12 & 9 & 4 & 4\\ \hline \text{First Choice} & A & V & V & R\\ \hline \text{Second Choice} & R & R & A & A\\ \hline \text{Third Choice} & V & A & R & V\\ \hline \end{array}$$

Is the head-to-head criterion satisfied? Explain your answer.

In this exercise, you are to modify the Classify Numbers programming example in this chapter. As written, the program inputs the data from the standard input device (keyboard) and outputs the results on the standard output device (screen). The program can process only 20 numbers. Rewrite the program to incorporate the following requirements:

• Modify the function getNumber so that it reads a number from the input file (opened in the function main), outputs the number to the output file (opened in the function main), and sends the number read to the function main. Print only 10 numbers per line.

A division of Ditton Industries manufactures a deluxe toaster oven. Management has determined that the daily marginal cost function associated with producing these toaster ovens is given by $C^{\prime}(x)=0.0003 x^{2}-0.12 x+20$ where $C^{\prime}(x)$ is measured in dollars per unit and x denotes the number of units produced. Management has also determined that the daily fixed cost incurred in the production is $800. Find the total cost incurred by Ditton in producing the first 300 units of these toaster ovens per day.

A contractor estimated that her expenses for a construction project would be between $700,000 and$750,000. She has already spent $496,000. How much more can she spend and remain within her estimate?

The return on invested capital (ROIC) method removes multiple ROR values from a cash flow sequence. If the future worth computation in year t is

$$F _ { t } < 0$$

, the ROIC rate

$$i ^ { \prime }$$

is used. The interpretation of

$$F _ { t } < 0$$

most closely means: (a) The net balance of project cash flows in year t is negative. (b) The resulting external rate of return will be positive. (c) The net balance of project cash flows is positive in year t. (d) The sequence has nonremovable negative ROR values.

Your sister borrowed your bike without asking again. Now you have no way to get to your friend's house to work on a project. How could you handle this situation in a positive manner?

Your division is considering two projects. Its WACC is $10 \%$, and the projects' after-tax cash flows (in millions of dollars) would be as follows:

$$\begin{array}{lrrrr}&0&1&2&3&4\\ \text { Project A } & -\$ 30 & \$ 5 & \$ 10 & \$ 15 &\$20\\ \text { Project B } & -\$ 30 & \$ 20 & \$ 10 & \$ 8&\$6\end{array}$$

If the WACC was $5 \%$, would this change your recommendation if the projects were mutually exclusive? If the WACC was $15 \%$, would this change your recommendation? Explain your answers.

Construct a Gantt chart from the data given in the table below for Project A.

A division of Ditton Industries manufactures a deluxe toaster oven. Management has determined that the daily marginal cost function associated with producing these toaster ovens is given by $C^{\prime}(x)=0.0003 x^{2}-0.12 x+20$ where $C^{\prime}(x)$ is measured in dollars per unit and x denotes the number of units produced. Management has also determined that the daily fixed cost incurred in the production is $800. What is the total cost incurred by Ditton in producing the 201st through 300th units/day?

Reread the Country Focus on moving white-collar jobs offshore.

a. Who benefits from the outsourcing of skilled white-collar jobs to developing nations? Who are the losers?

b. Will developing nations like the United States suffer from the loss of high-skilled and high-paying jobs?

c. Is there a difference between the transference of high-paying white-collar jobs, such as computer programming and accounting, to developing nations, and low-paying blue-collar jobs? If so, what is the difference, and should government do anything to stop the flow of white-collar jobs out of the country to countries such as India?

Use Linear Programming to answer the following questions. See the earlier example.

On your birthday your grandmother gave you $\$ 25,000$, but told you she would like you to invest the money for 10 years before you used any of it. Since you wish to respect your grandmother's wishes, you seek out the advice of a financial adviser. She suggests you invest at least $\$ 15,000$ in municipal bonds yielding $6 \%$ and no more than $\$ 5,000$ in Treasury bills yielding $9 \%$. How much should be placed in each investment so that income is maximized?

(Modify) a. Include a member function named gcd() in the Fractions class constructed for Exercise 5a that reduces a fraction to its lowest common terms, such as reducing the fraction 2/4 to 1/2. This is done by dividing both the numerator and denominator values by their greatest common divisor. (See Exercise 10 in “Programming Projects for Chapter 6” for a description of finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers.) b. Modify the overloaded operator constructor written for Exercise 5a to include a call to gcd() so that eac h overloaded operator function uses gcd() to return a fraction in lowest common terms.

A partially completed performance report for Northstar, Inc., is in the Working Papers. Northstar has just completed its first quarter of the fiscal year ended December 31, 20X3. Management is interested in identifying significant favorable and unfavorable differences between projected and actual amounts. Northstar, Inc., only considers changes of 5.0% or more to be significant. Management reviews changes in net sales and cost of merchandise regardless of the amount of change.

Place an asterisk $\left(^*\right)$ in the right margin by every item that is significant.