APPLICATIONS

Growth and Decay

- the rate of increase or decrease of a certain
population/substance is directly proportional to
the amount of population/substance present.

*Variable Separable
Let P population or amount of substance

Example 1:
A certain population grows exponentially;
the population grows from 3,500 people to 6245
people in 8 years. Find the population after 20
years and how long it takes for the population to
double? Triple?

Example 2:
Bacteria can multiply at an alarming rate
when each bacteria splits into new cells. Thus
doubling. If we start with only one bacterium
which can double every hour, how many bacteria
do we have by the end of the 14th hour? By the
end of the day?

Example 3:
The number of bacteria in a yeast culture grows
at a rate which is proportional to the number present.
The bacteria count in a culture doubles in three
hours. At the end of 15 hours, the count is one
million. How many bacteria were in the count
originally?

Example 4:
The number of bacteria in a liquid culture is
observed to grow at a rate proportional to the
number of cells present. At the beginning of the
experiment there are 10,000 cells and after three
hours there are 50,000 cells . How many will there
be after one day of growth if this unlimited growth
continues? What is the doubling time (the
amount of time it takes for a given population to
double in size) of the bacteria?

Example 5:
Radium decomposes at a rate proportional
to the quantity of radium present. Suppose that it
is found that in 25 years, approximate 11% of a
certain quantity of radium is decomposed,
determine approximately how long it will take
for one-half of the original amount of radium to
decompose?

Example 6:
The population of Canada was 24,070,000 in
1980 while in 1990 it was 26,620,000. Assuming the
population is growing according to the principle of
growth with no food or space limitation, (a) find the
time their population will double. For the same years,
the population of Kenya was 16,681,000 and
24,229,000, respectively. (b) Find the population as a
function of time and (c) In what year do the population
of Canada and Kenya become equal?

Example 7:
By natural increase, a city whose population is
40000 doubles in 50 years. There is a net addition
of 400 persons per year because of the people
leaving and moving into the city. Estimate its
population in 10 years. (Hint: First find the natural
growth proportionality factor. Assume rate of
increase of population is proportional to the
number of persons in the city at any time t.

Newtons Law of Cooling

- states that the rate of change of a
temperature of a certain body is directly
proportional to the difference in temperature
between the body and the medium/surrounding to
which the body is placed.
*Variable Separable
Let T temperature of the body
Tm temperature of the medium/surrounding

Example 8:
A body whose temperature is 180C is
immersed in a liquid which is kept at a constant
temperature of 60C. In one minute, the
temperature of the immersed body is 120C. How
long will it take for the bodys temperature to
decrease to 90C?

Example 9:
A thermometer reading 18F is brought into a
room the temperature of which is 70F. One
minute later, the reading is 31F. (a) Determine
the temperature reading as a function of time and
in particular, (b) find the temperature reading 5
minutes after the thermometer is first brought into
the room.

Example 10:
The temperature of a cup of coffee is initially
at 65.55C. After two minutes it cools to 54.44C. If
the ambient temperature be at 21.11C, (a) find the
equation with respect to time and (b) how long
should I wait for the coffee to cool down to 43.33
degree Celsius?

Example 11:
Detective Conan is investigating the death of a
man found stabbed at the back in a restaurants
bathroom at 22C. The body was found dead at 24C
(body temperature) at around 2:30PM by a patrol
officer. The man was last seen entering the bathroom
of a restaurant at around 1P.M. the day before he
was found dead. Conan assumed that at the time of
his death, his body temperature drops by 0.2C from
his normal body temperature of 37C. Find the time
of his death.

Example 12:
A thermometer reading of 70F is placed in an
oven preheated to a constant temperature. Through a
glass window in the oven door, an observer records
that the thermometer reads 110F over minute
and 145F after 1 minute. How hot is the oven?

Example 13:
As part of his summer job at a restaurant, Jim learned to cook
up a big pot of soup late at night, just before closing time (10P.M.), so
that there would be plenty of soup to feed costumers the next day. He
also found out that, while refrigeration was essential to preserve the
soup overnight, the soup was too hot to be put directly into the fridge
when it was ready. (The soup had just boiled at 100C, and the fridge
was not powerful enough to accommodate a big pot of soup if It was
any warmer than 20C). Jim discovered that by cooling the pot in a
sink full of cold water, (kept running, so that its temperature was
roughly constant at 5C) and stirring occasionally, he could bring the
temperature o the soup to 60C in 10 minutes. How long before
closing time should the soup be ready so that Jim could put it in the
fridge and leave on time?

Example 14:
A cup of hot coffee is left standing on a table
in a room where the temperature is 75F. The
temperature of the coffee is initially measured to be
186F and after one minute, the temperature
drops to 182F. (a) Find a function of time that best
fits these temperature readings. (b) At what time
does the coffee reach the temperature 83.3244F?
(c) At t=12.25 minutes, what is the temperature
of the coffee?

Example 15:
At 1:00 PM a thermometer reading of 100F is
taken out where the room temperature is 40F. At
1:02 PM, the reading is 83F. At 1:05 PM, the
thermometer reading is taken back indoors where
the air is 120F. What is the thermometer reading at
1:09 PM?

Example 16:
At 1:00 p.m. a thermometer reading 10F is
removed from a freezer and placed in a room whose
temperature is 65F. At 1:05 p.m., the thermometer
reads 25F. Later, the thermometer is placed back in
the freezer. At 1:30 p.m., the thermometer reads
32F. When was the thermometer returned to the
freezer and what was the thermometer reading this
time?