Eva, the owner of eva's second time around wedding dresses, currently has five dresses to be altered, shown in the order in which they arrived: if eva uses the earliest due date first (edd) priority rule to schedule these jobs, what will be the average job tardiness?

The correct answer is 2.2 hours.

If Eva uses the earliest due date priority rule, the order of the dresses will be as follows: W (1 hour processing time, 1 hour due); Y (2 hrs processing time, 3 hrs due); V (3 hrs processing time, 5 hrs due); Z (5 hrs processing time, 7 hrs due); X (4 hrs processing time, 9 hrs due). 

It's easier to do the next step using real numbers. For example, if it's 11am now and W is due in 1 hour, then W is due at noon. If Y is due in 3 hours, then Y is due at 2pm, etc. Then, you need to use the processing time to see how long it will take to make the dresses. For example, since W takes one hour to process, it will be done by noon, its due date. 

This means that W and Y will be altered on time, V will be 1 hour late, Z will be 4 hours late, and X will be 6 hours late. To find the average tardiness, add these extra hours (1+4+6) = 11, and divide by the total number of dresses (even the ones that weren't late) 5: 11/5 = 2.2 hours.