Varian Doubt Again

[Ashima]

Randy Ratpack hates studying both economics and history. The
more time he spends studying either subject, the less happy he is. But
Randy has strictly convex preferences.
(a) Sketch an indifference curve for Randy where the two commodities
are hours per week spent studying economics and hours per week spent
studying history. Will the slope of an indifference curve be positive or
negative? Negative.
(b) Do Randy's indifference curves get steeper or flatter as you move from
left to right along one of them? Steeper.


Can someone answer the 2nd part for me?

[Arushi :))]

Firstly, the shape of IC should be correct.
Since, he hates both subjects , the IC will look like this.
Because , the weighted average of the two bundles has to preferred to either of them.
And origin is the most preferred bundle.
So , we can see that on moving from left to right,
the slope is getting steeper.
Tell me, if further elaboration is required :)

[Ashima]

Got the shape part,

But how exactly do we decide the steep and flat part?

[kangkan]

looks steep to me

[Arushi :))]

How to decide steepness of a curve?
We do it by taking tangents to the point on the curve.
On the extreme left, the curve is entirely flat- parallel to x-axis.
moving towards right, the tangent is getting steeper, and on the extreme right , the tangent is vertical- parallel to y-axis.
so, moving from left to right it steepens. I have drawn the tangents in blue color.