Course 163 · Money course 34

Use Supply, Demand and Opportunity Cost

Practice use supply, demand and opportunity cost with complete fictional records, worked calculations and changed-input checks.

Before you start

Use the supplied fictional case; paper and a calculator are sufficient.

Make Sense of Economic News See everything you’ll need

Free download · Original practice data · No external account required. Download the starter pack

What you’ll leave with

A fictional local-market analysis with demand/supply schedules, equilibrium, shifts, opportunity costs and a bounded price-change explanation.

Start course Start without an account. Sign in to save lesson progress across devices.

Your project

Start with the practice files. Build your project one lesson at a time.

Practice files are free without an account. Sign in to save your project record in My Proof: a description, checklist, and optional work link. Keep the original files in your own app or notebook; saving a project record does not upload them.

  1. Get your materialsDownload practice filesSupplied practice cases, a blank working record, complete lesson instructions, and annotated worked examples.
  2. Make your projectView the project checklist Work in your own notebook, document, or software. Use the supplied practice examples when you prefer.
  3. Keep a private recordSave a project record Sign in to save a description and checklist, then return to update them.
Course handbook

Know the route before you begin.

Here’s what you’ll need and what you’ll make. You can return to this guide during any lesson.

Who this is for

Learners ages 14+ practicing independently; adult-only transactions are studied as fictional future decisions.

Prepare before lesson one
  • Use the supplied fictional case; paper and a calculator are sufficient.
  • Recommended preparation: Make Sense of Economic News. Do not supply private financial documents.
Your final project

Finish with proof you can use.

A fictional local-market analysis with demand/supply schedules, equilibrium, shifts, opportunity costs and a bounded price-change explanation.

Save a project record in My Proof
See project checklist and review criteria

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • An opportunity-cost table with feasible alternatives and explicit value assumptions.
  • A demand table and price-change quantity explanation.
  • A supply table with matched units and a condition-change note.
  • A market-balance table with model equilibrium and limits.
  • A shift/movement comparison with an explicit causal-assumption note.
  • A complete fictional microeconomic market brief.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • All supplied records reconcile and the decision uses the named case rules.
  • Calculations show units, intermediate values and a second check.
  • Changed-input practice revises the affected result and identifies uncertainty.
  • The final project combines six lesson records, separates fictional assumptions from current rules, and states a supported next step.
Three ideas to help you along the way
Three useful ideas

The rules behind the steps.

01

Trace the money

For use supply, demand and opportunity cost, keep the source amount, transformation and resulting balance together.

02

Keep the assumption visible

Use the stated rate, date, permission and case rule; a real arrangement can produce a different result.

03

Test the decision

Use a changed input and a clear stop or review condition before turning this practice into an action.

What do these words mean?
Key words

Key terms worth knowing.

Opportunity cost
The value of the best feasible alternative given up.
Demand schedule
Quantities willing and able to be bought at different prices in a stated period.
Supply schedule
Quantities willing and able to be offered at different prices in a stated period.
Equilibrium
A modeled price/quantity where supply and demand are equal.
Your route

6 lessons.
One useful project.

Work in order the first time. Each lesson makes something the next lesson can use.

  1. 1
    Up next

    Calculate an opportunity cost

    Identify the best feasible alternative forgone in a bounded resource choice.

  2. 2
    8 min

    Build a market demand schedule

    Construct and interpret a hypothetical weekly demand schedule with fixed units.

  3. 3
    8 min

    Build a market supply schedule

    Construct a supply schedule and distinguish price movement from changed production conditions.

  4. 4
    10 min

    Find an equilibrium and an imbalance

    Calculate shortages/surpluses and identify equality in a complete supplied market schedule.

  5. 5
    9 min

    Distinguish a demand shift from movement along it

    Separate same-price schedule shifts from price-only movement in a supplied market model.

  6. 6
    11 min

    Explain a changed local market with limits

    Combine opportunity-cost and market schedules into a bounded changed-market explanation.

Use the tools

Tools to help you practice.

See all tools
Source transparency

Sources and further study.

Explore the references behind the lessons and take your learning further. Source notes explain access and reuse.

Federal Reserve Education — Opportunity Cost
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Official page opened/read during Money expansion authoring; checked the relevant concept and access state. These sources do not establish funding eligibility.

Access: Official resource page and its readable overview/transcript inspected; no external LMS lesson or media playback is claimed.

Reuse: Original fictional practice, questions and calculations; paraphrased concepts with a source link. No source exercise copied.

Federal Reserve Education — Supply and Demand Infographic
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Official page opened/read during Money expansion authoring; checked the relevant concept and access state. These sources do not establish funding eligibility.

Access: Official resource page and its readable overview/transcript inspected; no external LMS lesson or media playback is claimed.

Reuse: Original fictional practice, questions and calculations; paraphrased concepts with a source link. No source exercise copied.

Federal Reserve Education — Supply video and transcript
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Official page opened/read during Money expansion authoring; checked the relevant concept and access state. These sources do not establish funding eligibility.

Access: Official resource page and its readable overview/transcript inspected; no external LMS lesson or media playback is claimed.

Reuse: Original fictional practice, questions and calculations; paraphrased concepts with a source link. No source exercise copied.

Ready when you are

Start with the first useful move.

You’ll always know what to do, what to make, and where to go next.

Start lesson one