Indifference Curve

In microeconomic theory, an indifference curve is a graph showing different bundles of goods between which a consumer is indifferent. That is, at each point on the curve, the consumer has no preference for one bundle over another. One can equivalently refer to each point on the indifference curve as rendering the same level of utility (satisfaction) for the consumer. Utility is then a device to represent preferences rather than something from which preferences come. The main use of indifference curves is in the representation of potentially observable demand patterns for individual consumers over commodity bundles.

There are infinitely many indifference curves: one passes through each combination. A collection of (selected) indifference curves, illustrated graphically, is referred to as an indifference map.

Read more about Indifference Curve:  History, Map and Properties of Indifference Curves, Assumptions of Consumer Preference Theory, Preference Relations and Utility

Famous quotes containing the words indifference and/or curve:

    The freedom of indifference, the indifference of freedom, the will dust in the dust of its object, the act a handful of sand let fall—these were some of the shapes he had sighted, sunset landfall after many days.
    Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)

    The years-heired feature that can
    In curve and voice and eye
    Despise the human span
    Of durance—that is I;
    The eternal thing in man,
    That heeds no call to die.
    Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)