5/26/2017 DifferentialEquationsModelingwithFirstOrderDE's

ModelingwithFirstOrderDifferentialEquations
Wenowmoveintooneofthemainapplicationsofdifferentialequationsbothinthisclassandingeneral.
Modelingistheprocessofwritingadifferentialequationtodescribeaphysicalsituation.Almostallofthe
differentialequationsthatyouwilluseinyourjob(fortheengineersoutthereintheaudience)arethere
becausesomebody,atsometime,modeledasituationtocomeupwiththedifferentialequationthatyouare
using.

Thissectionisnotintendedtocompletelyteachyouhowtogoaboutmodelingallphysicalsituations.A
wholecoursecouldbedevotedtothesubjectofmodelingandstillnotcovereverything!Thissectionis
designedtointroduceyoutotheprocessofmodelingandshowyouwhatisinvolvedinmodeling.Wewill
lookatthreedifferentsituationsinthissection:MixingProblems,PopulationProblems,andFallingBodies.

Inallofthesesituationswewillbeforcedtomakeassumptionsthatdonotaccuratelydepictrealityinmost
cases,butwithoutthemtheproblemswouldbeverydifficultandbeyondthescopeofthisdiscussion(and
thecourseinmostcasestobehonest).

Soletsgetstarted.

MixingProblems
Intheseproblemswewillstartwithasubstancethatisdissolvedinaliquid.Liquidwillbeenteringand
leavingaholdingtank.Theliquidenteringthetankmayormaynotcontainmoreofthesubstancedissolved
init.Liquidleavingthetankwillofcoursecontainthesubstancedissolvedinit.IfQ(t)givestheamountof
thesubstancedissolvedintheliquidinthetankatanytimetwewanttodevelopadifferentialequationthat,
whensolved,willgiveusanexpressionforQ(t).Noteaswellthatinmanysituationswecanthinkofairas
aliquidforthepurposesofthesekindsofdiscussionsandsowedontactuallyneedtohaveanactualliquid,
butcouldinsteaduseairastheliquid.

Themainassumptionthatwellbeusinghereisthattheconcentrationofthesubstanceintheliquidis
uniformthroughoutthetank.Clearlythiswillnotbethecase,butifweallowtheconcentrationtovary
dependingonthelocationinthetanktheproblembecomesverydifficultandwillinvolvepartialdifferential
equations,whichisnotthefocusofthiscourse.

Themainequationthatwellbeusingtomodelthissituationis:

Rateat Rateat
Rateof
whichQ(t) whichQ(t)
changeof =
entersthe exitsthe
Q(t)
tank tank

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