. At the Franklin Post Office, patrons wait in a singleline for the first open window. On average, 100 patronsenter the post office per hour, and each window canserve an average of 45 patrons per hour. The postoffice estimates a cost of $0.10 for each minute apatron waits in line and believes that it costs $20 perhour to keep a window open. Interarrival times andservice times are exponential.a. To minimize the total expected hourly cost, howmany windows should be open?b. If the post office’s goal is to ensure that at most 5%of all patrons will spend more than five minutes inline, how many windows should be open?

Algebra & Trigonometry with Analytic Geometry
13th Edition
ISBN:9781133382119
Author:Swokowski
Publisher:Swokowski
Chapter5: Inverse, Exponential, And Logarithmic Functions
Section5.3: The Natural Exponential Function
Problem 38E
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. At the Franklin Post Office, patrons wait in a single
line for the first open window. On average, 100 patrons
enter the post office per hour, and each window can
serve an average of 45 patrons per hour. The post
office estimates a cost of $0.10 for each minute a
patron waits in line and believes that it costs $20 per
hour to keep a window open. Interarrival times and
service times are exponential.
a. To minimize the total expected hourly cost, how
many windows should be open?
b. If the post office’s goal is to ensure that at most 5%
of all patrons will spend more than five minutes in
line, how many windows should be open?

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