An air-ambulance service in Colorado is interested in keeping its helicopter in a central location that would minimize the flight distance to four major ski resorts. An X-Y grid was laid over a map of the area to determine the following latitude and longitude coordinates for the four resorts:

 

a. Formulate an NLP model to determine where the ambulance service should be located in order to minimize the total distance to each resort.

b. Implement your model in a spreadsheet and solve it. Where should the ambulance service be located?

c. What other factors might affect the decision, and how might you incorporate them in your model? (Consider, for example, differences in the average number of skiers and accidents at the different resorts, and the topography of the area.)