Computer Graphics: An Educational Tool in Production Economics

Students usually have difficulty in understanding the nature of surfaces generated by two-input production functions. Isoquant maps in two dimensions are easy to draw, and wooden or plastic models have sometimes been used by instructors to help students discover the relationship between an isoquant map and the resultant production surface. However, these models are difficult to build and expensive. Moreover, the exact mathematical specification of the production function underlying the plastic or wooden model is usually ambiguous. But the most serious disadvantage of such a model is that even if a mathematical specification of the production function underlying the model is known, it is impossible with a single model for the instructor to change the underlying function (and hence the isoquant map) so that the student might observe the resulting impacts on the surface of the function. Computer graphics can be used as an educational tool for helping students better learn production economics concepts. A plotter linked to a computer is used to generate three-dimensional illustrations of two-input agricultural production functions.l Moreover, production economics problems often require the maximization or minimization of a function, and computer graphics can be used to develop an understanding of the mathematical conditions necessary and sufficient for a maximum or minimum. This use is particularly important to supplement material in beginning graduate level production economics classes.