.

The model created by this dialog is very similar to the knapsack model. The general model provides a structure on which the student can construct DP models.

The model for a default problem is constructed with the general model. This allows the solution procedures to be demonstrated without additional data. For the one decision variable case, the model is given below. The first term in the objective reads: If the value of x is greater than 0, the value of the term is 5, but if x is 0, the value of the term is 0. Because of this fixed charge there is a tendency to have a small number of x values nonzero. This is contradicted, however, by the second term which penalizes large values of x. The default problem varies with the problem parameters.