Chapter 5

Chapter five was relatively difficult but very doable. It was once again slightly more difficult than the last chapter but probably easier than the next one and I assume the pattern will continue. Chapter five was a progression meaning that it built on the material learned from chapter four and it brought math into the equation which I've been excited about for a while now. The main topics discussed were the elasticity of demand and supply curve as well as the different kinds of curves that exist. Elasticity generally means how flexible something is and that applies to economics. In economics it is how much either of the curves shift or react when there is some kind of change. If there is a lot of change, it is known as elastic and when there is barely any change it is considered inelastic. The effect of the changes in price was exemplified through necessities and luxuries by the book. The book also showed how to calculate the elasticity of a curve with percent changes and that wasn't difficult to understand. This makes me wonder how the elasticity factor of a graph that we learned about in pre-calculus last year comes into this. Availability, time, and income are also three major factors that effect the elasticity and they generally determine the value. All in all, it wasn't a difficult chapter but starts getting into the nitty gritty bits of econ.