5/26/2017 DifferentialEquationsEquilibriumSolutions

EquilibriumSolutions
Intheprevioussectionwemodeledapopulationbasedontheassumptionthatthegrowthratewouldbea
constant.However,inrealitythisdoesntmakemuchsense.Clearlyapopulationcannotbeallowedtogrow
foreveratthesamerate.Thegrowthrateofapopulationneedstodependonthepopulationitself.Oncea
populationreachesacertainpointthegrowthratewillstartreduce,oftendrastically.Amuchmorerealistic
modelofapopulationgrowthisgivenbythelogisticgrowthequation.Hereisthelogisticgrowthequation.

Inthelogisticgrowthequationristheintrinsicgrowthrateandisthesamerasinthelastsection.Inother
words,itisthegrowthratethatwilloccurintheabsenceofanylimitingfactors.Kiscalledeither
thesaturationlevelorthecarryingcapacity.

Now,weclaimedthatthiswasamorerealisticmodelforapopulation.Letsseeifthatinfactiscorrect.To
allowustosketchadirectionfieldletspickacoupleofnumbersforrandK.Welluse andK=10.
Forthesevaluesthelogisticsequationis.

Ifyouneedarefresheronsketchingdirectionfieldsgobackandtakealookatthatsection.Firstnoticethat
thederivativewillbezeroatP=0andP=10.Alsonoticethattheseareinfactsolutionstothedifferential
equation.Thesetwovaluesarecalledequilibriumsolutionssincetheyareconstantsolutionstothe
differentialequation.Wellleavetherestofthedetailsonsketchingthedirectionfieldtoyou.Hereisthe
directionfieldaswellasacoupleofsolutionssketchedinaswell.

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