Joe owns a small coffee shop. His production function is
q = 2K^0.5 L
where q is the number of cups of coffee produced, K is the number of coffee machines, and L is the number of employees.
a) If K=1 and L=2, the marginal rate of technical substitution is _________.
b) If, starting from 1 machine and 2 employees, Joe hires one more employee, then he can produce the same quantity of cups of coffee with _________ fewer machines.