Matricess...

[sandi]

Tom and Eileen operate a dairy farm. They have three different types of poultry:A,B and C. They form a table to show the feeding requirements where foods X,Y and Z are invovled. All figures are in kilograms per week.

              Food  X      Food Y   Food Z
Poultry type A   1.1   0.6   0.8
Poultry Type B   0.80   1   0.4
Poultry Type C   0.1   1.2   1.4

a) Tom wants to form a matrix,R, so that RN gives the amount of each type of food in a 3*1 matrix with x,y,z arranged into each row where N gives the number of each type of poultry in another 3*1 matrix with a,b,c arranged into each row. Write down R.

Any help will be appreciated:-)

[plato]

Tom and Eileen operate a dairy farm. They have three different types of poultry:A,B and C. They form a table to show the feeding requirements where foods X,Y and Z are invovled. All figures are in kilograms per week.

              Food  X      Food Y   Food Z
Poultry type A   1.1   0.6   0.8
Poultry Type B   0.80   1   0.4
Poultry Type C   0.1   1.2   1.4

a) Tom wants to form a matrix,R, so that RN gives the amount of each type of food in a 3*1 matrix with x,y,z arranged into each row where N gives the number of each type of poultry in another 3*1 matrix with a,b,c arranged into each row. Write down R.

Any help will be appreciated:-)

I found the wording of the question unclear at first.
If N is a 3x1 matrix, then R must have 3 columns for the product RN to exist.
If the result of RN is to be a 3x1 also, then R must have 3 rows as well.

Let N = where a, b and c represent the numbers of each type of poultry

Since R must be a 3x3 matrix, this suggests rearranging the 3x3 matrix you gave at the start.
Then the 3 columns of R must be labelled A B C and the rows labelled X, Y and Z.

Therefore your answer is  R =
You could now multiply RN to get "the amount of each type of food in a 3*1 matrix" with the rows labelled Food X, Food Y and Food Z.