Exponential Population Growth

The population of a country is growing at a

rate that is proportional to the population of
the country. The population in 1990 was 20
million and in 2000 the population was 22
million. Estimate the population in 2020.

Solution
Example 16: Solution to a mixture problem: We start with a tank containing 50 gallons of
salt water with the salt concentration being 2 lb/gal. Salt water with a salt concentration of 3
lb/gal is then poured into the top of the tank at the rate of 3 gal/min and salt water is at the same
time drained from the bottom of the tank at the rate of 3 gal/min. We will consider the water and
salt mixture in the tank to be well-stirred and at all times to have a uniform concentration of salt.
Find the function S(t) that gives the amount of salt in the tank as a function of time (t) since we
began pouring in salt water at the top and simultaneously draining salt water from the bottom of
the tank. How long before there will be 120 pounds of salt in the tank?
 Graph of the solution function

Example 17: Solution to a Newton's Law of Cooling problem: A pot of liquid is put on the
stove to boil. The temperature of the liquid reaches 170oF and then the pot is taken off the
burner and placed on a counter in the kitchen. The temperature of the air in the kitchen is 76oF.
After two minutes the temperature of the liquid in the pot is 123oF. How long before the
temperature of the liquid in the pot will be 84oF? Click here for more on Newton's Law of
Cooling.
 Solution Function Graph

Example 18: SAILING: Ignoring resistance, a sailboat starting from rest accelerates (dv/dt) at
a rate proportional to the difference between the velocities of the wind and the boat. (a) Write
the velocity as a function of time if the wind is blowing at 20 ft/sec and after one second the boat
is moving at 5 ft/sec. Assume the boat started from rest. (b) Use the result in part (a) to write
the distance traveled by the boat as a function of time. Differential Equations Sailing
Application Solution (Equation similar to that governing Newton's Law of Cooling)

Example 19: An Application Involving a Snowplow

On a Tuesday morning in February before noon in rural Minnesota it started to snow. There had
been no snow on the ground before it started to snow. Literally immediately it was snowing at a
steady, constant rate so that the thickness of the snow on the ground was increasing at a constant
rate. A snowplow began clearing the snow from the streets at noon. The speed of the snowplow
in clearing the snow is inversely proportional to the thickness of the snow. The snowplow
traveled two miles during the first hour after noon and traveled one mile during the second hour
after noon. At what time did it begin snowing?

a = The length of time before noon when it

started snowing.
t = The length of time the snowplow had been Click on the picture to see a
traveling (and plowing). snowplow in action (with
sound). Click here for more
v = The speed of the snowplow.
action (takes longer to load).
s = The distance traveled by the snowplow.
T = The thickness of the snow.

s(0) = 0, s(1) = 2, s(2) = 3

v = k/(t + a) since the speed of the snowplow in clearing the snow is inversely proportional to
the thickness of the snow.
Thus

Here is an animation showing the snowplow plowing (and slowing down). Quicktime version

Solution
MIXTURE PROBLEM 2: A tank holds 100 gallons of
liquid. The tank is half full with a salt water solution
that contains 0.1 lb of salt per gallon. Pure water is
added to the container at the rate of 2 gallons per minute
and at the same time one gallon of salt water per minute
is removed from the tank. Assume that the concentration
of salt in the water in the tank remains uniform
throughout. When the tank becomes full it begins to
overflow and at that time a total of 2 gallons per minute
of salt water will be leaving the tank. Construct a
piecewise continuous function S(t) that gives the amount
of salt in the tank as a function of time t where t = 0
represents the time when the 2 gallons per minute of pure
water began being added to the tank and the 1 gallon per
minute of "well-stirred, uniform" mixture began exiting
the tank. The picture at the right shows the amount of
salt in the tank as a function of time. Solution

NEWTON'S LAW OF COOLING

PROBLEM 2: When a thermometer reads
36oF, it is placed in an oven. After 1 and 2
minutes, respectively, it reads 60oF and 82oF.
What is the temperature of the oven? Justify
your answer analytically. Solution
NEWTON'S LAW OF COOLING
PROBLEM 3: Some hot chocolate has been
created using milk and chocolate and has a
temperature of 200oF. The hot chocolate is in
a cup that is 9/10 full. Cool milk at a
temperature of 50oF is to be used to help cool
the hot chocolate. Assume that the cooling
constant, k, from Newton's Law of Cooling is
the same for the hot chocolate and the milk
and therefore the same for any mixture of hot
chocolate and milk. If the cup of 200oF hot
chocolate is filled the rest of the way up to the
brim with the 50o milk then the milk diluted
hot chocolate will have an immediate
temperature of

Two minutes later the milk diluted hot

chocolate will have a temperature of 160oF if
it is in a room whose temperature is 80oF.
Use this fact to calculate k. (a) If the milk Red gives the temperature curve when the milk is
was added to the hot chocolate at time t=0 added immediately.
minutes, how long will it take for the
temperature of the milk diluted hot chocolate Blue gives the temperature curve when the milk
to reach 120oF? (b) Suppose instead that the is not added until five minutes after the hot
milk is not added to the hot chocolate until the chocolate was poured into the cup in the 80oF
originally 200oF hot chocolate has been in the room.
80oF room for 5 minutes. In this case how
long will it take (total) for the hot chocolate A similar problem can be found at the Joseph
(ultimately diluted by milk) to reach a Mahaffy site linked to in the 3.1 and 3.2 notes
temperature of 120oF? (c) Using the 80oF under Lectures--Linear Differential Equations--
room and the 50oF milk, how could the hot Worked Examples.
chocolate be cooled to 120oF in the least
amount of time and what would this time be?
Solution

HEAT SEEKING PARTICLE EXAMPLES: Click here to see the heat seeking particle
examples from Calculus III. You will also find Maple worksheets describing how to find the
path of steepest descent down a mountain.