How do intermediaries benefit companies?

Suppose that two firms produce differentiated products and compete in prices. as in class, the two firms are located at two ends of a line one mile apart. consumers are evenly distributed along the line. the firms have identical marginal cost, $60. firm b produces a product with value $110 to consumers. firm a (located at 0 on the unit line) produces a higher quality product with value $120 to consumers. the cost of travel are directly related to the distance a consumer travels to purchase a good. if a consumerhas to travel a mile to purchase a good, the incur a cost of $20. if they have to travel x fraction of a mile, they incur a cost of $20x. (a) write down the expressions for how much a consumer at location d would value the products sold by firms a and b, if they set prices p_{a} and p_{b} ? (b) based on your expressions in (a), how much will be demanded from each firm if prices p_{a} and p_{b} are set? (c) what are the nash equilibrium prices?

Uknow what i love about i ask a dumb question it is immediately answered but when i ask a real question it take like an hour to get answered

White truffles are a very prized and rare edible fungus that grow naturally in the countryside near alba, italy. suppose that it costs $200 per day to search for white truffles. on an average day, the total number of white truffles (t) found in alba is t = 20x − x 2 , where x is the number of people searching for white truffles on that day. white truffles can be sold for $100 each. if there is no regulation, how many more people will be searching for white truffles than the socially optimal number?