MATH 1014: Applied Calculus I

Assignment 3 - 20 marks total

due Friday, March 12th (11:59pm)

Submission Instructions. Complete any FOUR (4) of the seven questions below, each
worth 5 marks. Your submission will be graded both on accuracy and clear and effective
communication (mathematical, non-mathematical, written and visual). If you submit more
than 4 solutions, we will grade the first four you submit.
To allow for any technical difficulties or upload issues, you may submit your assignment
without penalty until 11:59 PM on Sunday, March 14th. Assignments submitted afterwards
will have a 5% per hour lateness penalty applied. Crowdmark does not allow you to resubmit
your work after the initial deadline (you can submit late, but not resubmit late).
You may consult with other classmates for inspiration, but your final submission must be
written in your own words with your own thoughts and ideas.

1. (5 marks). A population of fish is living in a lake with limited resources. This lake can
only support the population if it contains no more than M fish (otherwise some fish
would starve due to an inadequate supply of food, etc.). As a result, we can model the
number of fish in the lake P (t) using the logistic equation with relative growth rate k
and carrying capacity M , where t is measured in years.
 
dP P
= kP 1 − .
dt M

(a) Suppose now that, due to fishing, fish are also being removed from the lake at
a constant rate of α fish per year. Modify the logistic equation given above to
create a differential equation that describes this new scenario.
(b) Find the equilibrium solutions (i.e. constant solutions) to the differential equation
that you wrote down in (a). Your answer will be in terms of k, M and α.
(c) Which rates of fishing are unsustainable? That is, which values of α result in
no equilibrium solutions and a population that is always decreasing? (In such a
situation, the population will eventually go extinct.)

2. (5 marks). You’re interested in modelling the population of deer on Vancouver Island.

Your friend, who has collected data on the population while doing field research, tells

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you that the population P (measured in tens of thousand of deer) at time t (measured
in years) should be modelled by a differential equation of the form

dP
= f (P ),
dt
where a rough sketch of the graph of f (P ), estimated based on your friend’s data, is
shown below.

f (P )

6
5
4
3
2
1
P
−1 10 20 30 40

(a) Use the graph of f (P ) to make a direction field for the differential equation using
a grid like the one shown below.
P
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
t
1 2 3 4 5

(b) Recall that an equilibrium solution of an (autonomous) differential equation is a

solution that is constant for all time. What are the equilibrium solutions for this
differential equation? Justify your answer.
(c) Roughly speaking, we say that an equilibrium solution y(t) = c is stable if
“nearby” solutions (i.e. solutions y(t) for which y(0) is either slightly greater
or slightly less than c) approach the equilibrium solution as t → ∞. Similarly,
an equilibrium solution y(t) = c is unstable if “nearby” solutions move away from

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 the equilibrium solution as t → ∞. Use your direction field to sketch solutions
starting above and below each equilibrium solution. Then use your sketches to
classify each equilibrium solution as stable or unstable.
(d) Based on your answers to the previous parts, do you think this is a reasonable
model for the deer population? Write one sentence explaining your answer.

3. (5 marks). The reaction chemical reaction H2 + Br2 → 2HBr satisfies the differential
equation
dx
= k(a − x)(b − x)1/2 , x(0) = x0
dt
where k is a positive constant, x represents the concentration of HBr, a represents
the initial concentration of hydrogen, b represents the initial concentration of bromine,
and x0 represents the initial concentration of HBr, all measured in mol/L.
Write some code (in any programming language) that uses Euler’s Method to approx-
imate the solution at t = 1, that is, approximates the value of x(1).
You may assume for simplicity that a = 2, b = 1, k = 0.5, x0 = 0, but your code should
accept as variable input the choice of n (the number of steps) and should report back
the approximate solution at t = 1.
You should submit both the code and the output of the code in the case when n = 10
(that is, the step size is h = 0.1) and also the case when n = 20 (that is, the step size
is h = 0.05).
4. (5 marks). A student forgot the Product Rule for differentiation and made the mistake
of thinking that (f g)0 = f 0 g 0 . However, she was lucky and accidentally got the correct
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answer. The function f that she used was f (x) = ex and the domain of her problem
was the interval ( 12 , ∞).
What was the function g?
5. (5 marks). An “integral equation” is an equation that contains an unknown function
y(x) and an integral that involves y(x). Solve the integral equation
Z x
dt
y(x) = 2 + , x > 0.
1 ty(t)

You will be expected to find a particular solution (that is, to solve for C). Choosing a
careful value of x in the original integral equation will give you enough information to
solve for C.
6. (5 marks). In this question we will compare a fundamental exponential growth popu-
lation model with a so-called “doomsday model”.
(a) Solve the following population growth differential equation, where k is a positive
constant.
dy
= ky, y(0) = y0
dt

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 (b) If a is a positive number, solve the following population growth differential equa-
tion, where k is again a positive constant.
dy
= ky 1+a , y(0) = y0
dt

(c) Sketch your solutions from parts (a) and (b) on the same graph and explain in
your own words the difference between the solutions, in terms of their behaviour
and their effect on modelling population growth.

7. (5 marks). In this question, you will have an opportunity to reflect on your university
note taking strategies. You may handwrite or type your answers to this question!

(a) Pick a random page of notes that you have taken so far for this course. As part of
your submission, please upload that page (as either a PDF scan, or as a photo).
(b) BEFORE moving on to part (c), answer the following questions. What do you
like about your notes? What do you not like about your notes? On a scale of 0 to
5 (0=very unhelpful, 5=very helpful), how helpful are your notes when studying
for your quizzes?
(c) Visit the Note Taking Strategies hosted by York University’s Learning Skills Ser-
vices. Read the tips, tricks and strategies on this page and identify ONE thing
you would like to do different for taking notes for your next class. Make sure this
one thing is reasonable and specific, so that you are more likely to actually do it!
Our expectation is that your answer will be approximately 200 words.
www.yorku.ca/scld/learning-skills/reading-and-notes/note-taking/

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