QUESTION - Center of Gravity (COG)
An electronics retailer considers setting up a new store to serve four nearby cities. The retailer needs to find a good location which can attract the most customers.
City populations can represent the number of potential customers. City councils are situated roughly in the center of the cities. City populations and geographical coordinates of the four city councils are as follows:
| city |
Council x-coordinate
|
Council y-coordinate
|
Population
|
| 1 |
3 |
20 |
19000 |
| 2 |
14 |
17 |
17500 |
| 3 |
5 |
6 |
15500 |
| 4' |
12 |
3 |
16000 |
(a) Using the center-of-gravity method, find the preferred coordinates of the new store.
(b) Use the scatter diagram function in Excel to draw an area map of the four city councils and the preferred store location.
Your map should have 5 points with x-coordinates on the horizontal axis and y-coordinates on the vertical axis. Give an Excel printout of the map.