Question

If two painters can paint 200 square feet of wall in an hour, and three painters can paint 275 square feet, what is the marginal product of the third painter?

Short answer

The marginal product of the third painter is 75 square feet.

Step-by-step solution

Determine the output produced by two painters.

The problem states that two painters can paint 200 square feet of wall in an hour. Therefore, the output produced by two painters is 200 square feet.

Determine the output produced by three painters.

The problem states that three painters can paint 275 square feet of wall in an hour. Therefore, the output produced by three painters is 275 square feet.

Calculate the marginal product of the third painter.

To find the marginal product of the third painter, we need to find the additional output produced by adding one more painter (in this case, the third painter) to the existing workforce of two painters. We can do this by subtracting the output produced by two painters from the output produced by three painters: Marginal product of the third painter = Output produced by three painters - Output produced by two painters Marginal product of the third painter = 275 square feet - 200 square feet Marginal product of the third painter = 75 square feet Hence, the marginal product of the third painter is 75 square feet.