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Problem Title: The Railroad Flatcar Problem

     
  Year: 1988      
  Student Level: Undergraduate      
  Source: MCM      
  Commentary: No      
  Student Papers: No      
     
  Problem  
 

Two railroad flatcars are to be loaded with seven types of packing crates. The crates have the same width and height but varying thickness (t, in cm) and weight (w, in kg). Table 1 gives, for each crate, the thickness, weight, and number available. Each car has 10.2 meters of length available for packing the crates (like slices of toast) and can carry up to 40 metric tons. There is a special constraint on the total number of C5, C,6, and C7 crates because of a subsequent local trucking restriction: The total space (thickness) occupied by these crates must not exceed 302.7 cm. Load the two flatcars (see Figure 1) so as to minimize the wasted floor space.

Table 1.
The thickness, weight, and number of each kind of crate.

Figure 1. Diagram of loading of a flatcar.

 
         
  Commentary      
 

None

 
 
         
  Student Papers      
 

None