Economics question: indifference curve?

[939]

I know if you have two bads the slope is negative and is curved, and the closer to 0 the better.

But what if you have two bads where one is worse? I.e. good a and b are both bads, but you want 5 of good b for every 1 of good a?

 

[alan2]

The qualitative behavior of the curve does not change. You are looking at points of equal total utility so it doesn't matter if 1A=2B or 7.5A=137B, the behavior is the same. Increasing one must decrease the other in order to maintain total utility (the curve is decreasing) and there is always diminishing marginal utility (the curve is not linear).