Last year, Cool Lope, Inc. had an inventory turnover rate of 6.8. This year, the turnover rate is 7.1. Based on this information, you know the:

a. Firm’s inventory level is higher this year than it was last year.

b. Firm’s sales decreased from last year to this year.

c. Days’ sales in inventory decreased from last year to this year.

d. Average time it takes to sell inventory has increased.

The plastic flowerpots company has two manufacturing departments, molding and packaging. at the beginning of the month, the molding department has 2,100 units in inventory, 70% complete as to materials. during the month, the molding department started 18,500 units. at the end of the month, the molding department had 3,150 units in ending inventory, 80% complete as to materials. units completed in the molding department are transferred into the packaging department. cost information for the molding department for the month follows: beginning work in process inventory (direct materials) $ 1,300 direct materials added during the month 28,900 using the weighted-average method, compute the molding department's (a) equivalent units of production for materials and (b) cost per equivalent unit of production for materials for the month. (round "cost per equivalent unit of production" to 2 decimal places.)

Suppose that fixed costs for a firm in the automobile industry (start-up costs of factories, capital equipment, and so on) are $5 billion and that variable costs are equal to $17,000 per finished automobile. because more firms increase competition in the market, the market price falls as more firms enter an automobile market, or specifically, , where n represents the number of firms in a market. assume that the initial size of the u.s. and the european automobile markets are 300 million and 533 million people, respectively.a. calculate the equilibrium number of firms in the u.s. and european automobile markets without trade.b. what is the equilibrium price of automobiles in the united states and europe if the automobile industry is closed to foreign trade? c. now suppose that the united states decides on free trade in automobiles with europe. the trade agreement with the europeans adds 533 million consumers to the automobile market, in addition to the 300 million in the united states. how many automobile firms will there be in the united states and europe combined? what will be the new equilibrium price of automobiles? d. why are prices in the united states different in (c) and (b)? are consumers better off with free trade? in what ways?

Now, use your previously-computed value as an approximation for sigma, and compute how many ears of the experimental corn the researcher needs in the study. don't forget, the margin of error and confidence level have already been given to you in a previous problem.