Example
The cookie factory has to produce 10000 cookies tomorrow using 100 ovens (K). The cookie production function is
$$ q \left( K, L \right) = K L^2 $$How many grandmas (L) does the factory need?
$$ \begin{align*} q \left( K, L \right) &= K L^2 \\ 10000 &= 100 L^2 \\ 100 &= L^2 \\ L &= 10 \end{align*} $$The cookie factory needs 10 grandmas to produces 10000 cookies tomorrow.
Question
The production function is `q \left( K, L \right) = 4 K^{5} L^{}`. The factory has to produce 50000 cookies in a short period of time with K = 5 ovens.
How many workers does the factory need?
Plugging the values we know gives
$$ \begin{align*} q \left( K, L \right) &= 4 K^{5} L^{} \\ 50000 &= 4 \times 5^{5} L^{} \end{align*} $$Solving for L:
$$ \begin{align*} L^{} &= \frac{50000}{4 \times 5^{5} } \\ L^{} &= 4 \end{align*} $$The factory needs `4` grandmas to bake cookies tomorrow.