Exponential Growth and

Decay

Here starts
the lesson!
 In the next two sections, we examine how
population growth can be modeled using
differential equations. We start with the basic
exponential growth and decay models. Before
showing how these models are set up, it is
good to recall some basic background ideas from
algebra and calculus.

.
1. Avariable y is proportional
to a variable x if A function P(t) is
y = k x, where k is a decreasing over an
constant interval if
2. Given a function P(t), where dP
P is a function of the  P ( t )  0
dt
time t, the rate of
change of P with A function P(t) is neither
respect to the time t increasing or decreasing
is given by dP over an interval if
 P(t)
dt dP
 P ( t )  0
3. A function P(t) is dt
increasing over an
interval if dP
 P ( t )  0
dt
 The
Exponential
Growth Model
Introduction

When a population grows In mathematical terms, this can

exponentially, it grows be written as dP  kP
at a rate that is proportional to dt
its size at any time
t. Suppose the variable P(t) Solving for k gives 1 dP
k 
(sometimes we use P dt
just use P) represents the The value k is known as the
population at any time relative growth rate
t. In addition, let be the and is a constant.
initial population at
time t = 0, that is, P(0)  P Suppose we return to the equation
0
Then if the dP
 kP
population grows exponentially, dt
(Rate of change of population at
time t) = k (Current
population at time t)
 We
thi can
usi s e sol
ng q ve
sep uatio
var ara n
iab of tio
les n
dP .
 kdt (Separatethe variables) is, Tha
P t

1
 P dP   kdt (Integrateboth sides)

ln P  kt  C (Applyintegration formulas)
eln|P|  e ktC (Raiseboth sides to exponential functionof basee)
P  e kt eC (Useinversepropertyeln k  k and law of exponentsb x y  b x b y )
P(t )  Aekt (UseabsolutevaluedefinitionP  eC e kt and replaceconstant eC with A.)
 kt
The equation
P (t )  Ae Exponential Growth
represents the general
solution of the differential
Model
equation. Using the The initial value problem
initial for exponential growth
condition P (0)  P0 ,
we can find the dP
particular solution.  kP, P(0)  P0
dt
P0  P(0)  Ae k (0) (Substitute t  0 in the equation and equate to P0 )
P0  A(1) (Note that e k (0)  e 0  1)
has particular solution
A  P0 (Solve for A)
kt
P ( t )  P0 e kt
Hence, P(t )  P0 e is the
particular solution.
Summarizing, we have the
following:
where
P0 = initial population
(population you that
with) at
time t = 0,
k = relative growth rate
that is constant
t = the time the population
grows.
P(t) = what the population
grows to after time t.
1.When modeling a
population with an
exponential growth
model, if the Notes
relative growth rate
k is unknown, it
should be determined.
This is usually done
using the known
population at two
particular times.
2. Exponential growth
models are good predictors for
small populations in large
populations with abundant
resources, usually for
relatively short time periods.
3. The graph of the
P(t )  P0ekt
exponential equation
has the general form
P c.) Estimate the population in 2010.
P(t)  P0ekt
Example 1:
The table below shows the rabbit
population on a certain island where t is
the number of the year s beginning with
year 2000.
a.) Determine the relative growth rate.
b.) Write a general equation for the
population P(t).
d.) How many years will it take for the
population to double?
YEAR POPULATION

2000 1500
2001 1577
2002 1658
2003 1743
P0 2004 1832
t 2005 1926
Solution
Given: P(0)= 1500, (b)
P(1)=1577 P(t)= 1500ekt
P(t)=15000.05t
P(t)=P0ekt (d)
1500=P0ek(0)
1500=P0e0 2=e0.05t
1500=P0 (c ) ln(2)=ln(e0.05t)
P(10)=1500e0.05(1 ln(2)=0.05tln(e)
(a)
0) ln(2)=0.05t
P(t)= 1500ekt
P(10)=2473
1577=1500ek(1)
1.0513=ek t=13.86 years =14 years=2014
ln(1.0513) =ln(ek)
=kln(e)
Ln(1.0513)=k
0.05=k
Example 2: Solution (c )
(a.) P ( t )  30 e ( 0 .0198026 ) t
The exponential growth model  P (11)  30e ( 0.0198026 )(11)
( 0 .0198026 ) t
P (t )  30e ( 0.0198026 ) t P (t )  30 e
P (11)  30e 0.2178286
describes the population of a city in the P (0)  30e ( 0.0198026 )( 0 )
United States, in thousands, t years P (11)  30(1.243373935)
after 1994.  Use this model to solve the P (0)  30e 0
P (11)  37.30121805
following: P (0)  30(1) The population in 2005 would
P (0)  30 be approximately 37, 301.
a) What was the population of the city in
1994? P(0)=30 (in (d) P ( t )  30 e ( 0 .0198026 )t

thousands)= 30,000 60  30 e ( 0 .0198026 ) t

b) By what % is the population of the 60 30 e ( 0 .0198026 )t

city increasing each year? (b) 30 30
k = .0198026x100 2e ( 0 . 0198026 ) t

c) What will the population of the city =1.98026% 

ln( 2 )  ln e ( 0 .0198026 )t

be in 2005?
ln( 2 )  0 . 198026 t
d) When will the city’s population be 60 ln( 2 )
t
thousand? 0 . 0198026
35 . 00283703  t
 35 years  1994  year 2029
Example 3:
A strain of bacteria growing on your
desktop doubles every 5 minutes.
Assuming that you start with only one
bacterium, how many bacteria could be
present at the end of 96 minutes?

P (t )  P0 e kt
2  1e k ( 5 )
2  e5k
ln  ( 2 )  ln( e 5 k )
ln( 2 )  5 k
P (t )  P0 e 0.1386294362 ( 96 )
ln 2
k P (t )  602 , 248 .76225 bacteria
5
k  0 .1386294361
Exponential
Decay
 1 dP
k  
When a population decays Here, is called
P dt
exponentially, it the relative decay
decreases at a rate that is constant. Note that k  0
proportional to its size since, because the
dP
at any time t. The model for population is decreasing, 0
and k   1 dP dt
exponential decay is  0
P dt

negative negative

dP
  kP , P ( t )  P0 Using separation of variables in
a process similar
dt to exponential growth, it can be
shown that the
solution to the initial value
 kt
problem is P ( t )  P 0 e .
Summarizing, we have the
following:
 Exponential Decay Model
The initial value problem for
exponential decay

dP
 kP, P(0)  P0
dt
has particular solution

P ( t )  P0 e  kt
where
Notes
P0 = initial population
(population you that 1.Many times the rate of
decay is expressed in
with) at
terms of half-life,
time t = 0, the time it takes for
k = relative decay rate half of any given
quantity to decay so
that is constant. Note
that only half of its
that k > 0. original amount
t = the time the remains.
2. Radioactive elements
population decays.
typically decay
P(t) = the population that exponentially.
is left after time t.
Example 4: To complete the equation that models
this population, we need to find the
Bismuth-210 has a half-life of 5.0 days. relative decay rate k. We can use the
half life of the substance to do this.
The half life of Bismuth-210 is 5 days.
a.Suppose a sample originally has a
This says that after t = 5, the original
mass of 800 mg. Find a formula for the
population of 800 mg has decay to half
mass remaining after t days.
of its original amount, or 0.5 (800)=
400 mg. Mathematically, since P(t)
b.Find the mass remaining after 30 days.
represents that amount of population of
the substance left after time t, this
When is the mass reduced to 1 mg. says that P(5)=400. Using the decay
Solution: equation, we have
( a) Since this is an exponential
decay problem, we will use the formula 400 =P(5)=800e^-k (5)
-5k
P(t) =P0e kt . Since we start with 800e  400
800 mg, then we know that P0 =800 .
Thus the formula becomes

P(t) =800e kt
We must solve this equation (b)
for k. We proceed with the
following steps. Using the formula found
400 in part a, we see that
e 5 k 
800
Mass remaining after
e 5 k  0 .5
t= 30 days
ln e  5 k  ln( 0 .5)
 5 k ln e  ln( 0 .5) P(30) = 800e^ -
0.1386(30)
 5 k (1)  ln( 0 .5)
ln( 0 .5) =800e^-4.158
k
5
=12.51 grams
k  0 .1386294361
P (t )  800 e  0 .1386294361 t
 (c.) Example 5:
In this problem, we want the time t it A certain radioactive isotope element
takes for the mass to have reduced decays exponentially according to the
down to 1 mg. That is, we want t when model 
P(t) =1. We perform the following
steps using P (t )  800 e 0.1386294361 t to , where A is the number of grams of
solve for t. the isotope at the end of t days and
1  P ( t )  800 e  0 . 1386 t Ao is the number of grams present
initially.  What is the half-life of
800 e  0 . 1386 t
 1 this isotope?
1
e  0 . 1386 t

800
1
ln e  0 . 1386 t
 ln( )
800
1
 0 . 1386 t ln e  ln( )
800 The half-life of
1 Thus, it takes this isotope is
 0 . 1386 t (1 )  ln( )
800 approximately t approximately
ln( 1 / 800 ) = 48.2 days for 2.77 days.
t  the substance to
 0 . 1386
decay to 1 mg.
t  48 . 2
 Example 6:
An artifact originally had 12 grams of carbon-14
present.  The decay model 
P(t)=12e-0.000121t describes the amount of carbon-14
present after t years.  How many grams of carbon-14 will
be present in this artifact after 10,000 years?
Solution:
P(t)=12e-0.000121t
P(10,000)=12e-0.000121(10,000)
P(10,000)=12e-1.21
= 3.578367353

There will be approximately 3.58 grams of carbon-14

present after 10,000 years.

PRACTICE PROBLEMS
1.A slow economy caused a company’s
annual revenues  to drop from Php
530,000 in 2008 to
Php 386,000 in 2010. If the revenue
is following an exponential pattern
of decline, what is the expected
revenue in 2012?
2. Suppose a population of insects
increases according to the law of
exponential growth. There were 130
insects after the third day of the
experiment and 380 insects after the
seventh day. Approximately how many
insects were in the original
population?
3. A house is purchased for Php
150,000 in 2002. The value of the
house is given by the exponential
growth model A=150,000e0.0645t. Find
when the house would be worth Php
200,000.
4. The frog population in a small pond
grows exponentially. The current
population is 85 frogs, and the
relative growth rate is 18% per year.
(a)Find a function that models the
number of frogs after t years.
(b)Find the projected population after
3 years.
(c)Find the number of years required
for the frog population to reach 600.
5. A culture contains 10,000 bacteria
initially. After an hour, the bacteria
count is 25,000.
(a)Find the doubling period.
(b)(b) Find the number of bacteria
after 3 hours.
6. Radioactive Decay The half-life of
cesium-137 is 30 years. Suppose we have a
10 g sample.
(a)Find a function that models the mass
remaining after t years.
(b)How much of the sample will remain
after 80 years?
After how long will only 2 g of the
sample remain?
7.A study found that a car depreciates
15% per year. If the car was purchased
for $15000, how much is it worth after 4
years?
8. A new car costs $23,000. The value
decreases by 15% each year.
(a.) Write an exponential model to
represent the car’s value after t years.
(b.) To the nearest dollar, how much will
the car be worth after 4 years?
9. You invest $500 in the stock of a
company. The value of the stock decreases
by 2% each year?
(a.) Write a function to represent the
value of the stock after t years.
(b.) What will the stock be worth after 6
years?
10. A cup of coffee contains 130
milligrams of caffeine. If caffeine is
eliminated from the body at a rate of 11%
per hour, how long will it take for half
of this caffeine to be eliminated?
Answers and Solution:
1. Given : (0;530,000 )
2. Given : (3;130), (7;380),
(2;386,000 )
130  P0 e 3k
t  0;2008
380  P0 e 7 k 130  P0 e 3k
t  2;2010
t  4;2012 130
7k P0 
380  P0 e e 3k
P(t) = P0 e kt
k (2)
380  (130e 3k )e 7 k P0  130e 3k
386 , 000  530 , 000
380  130e 4 k
386000
 e 2k 380 130  P0 e 3( 0.268159 )
530000  e4k
386000 130 130
ln( )  ln e 2 k  P0
38 e 0.80448
553000 ln( )  4k ln e
386000 13 P0  58in sec ts, initially
ln( )  2 k ln e 1 38
553000 ln( )  k
1 386000 4 13
ln( )k k  0.268159
2 553000
k   0 . 1585198185
P ( 4)  530000 e 0.1585198185 ( 4 )
P ( 4)  Php 281,124 .5283
 0 . 18 t
3. 4. (a.) P ( t )  85 e
P ( 3 )  85 0 .18 ( 3 )
(b.)
P ( 3 )  145 . 86
(c.)
85 e 0.18 t  600
e 0.18 t  7.059
ln( e 0.18 t )  ln(7.059)
0.18 t  ln(7.059)
ln(7.059)
t
0.18
t  10 .86
Thus, the frog population will reach 600 in approximat ely 10.9 years.
Rounding 4.46 to the nearest
whole number we get t = 4.
Since t is measured in years
since 2002, the model indicates
that the
population will reach 200000 in
year 2002 + 4 = 2006.
 5. 6. (a) k  ln(2)  0.023105
30
(a.)
P (t )  10e 0.023105t
10,000 e kt  25,000
e k  2.5 (b.)P(80)  10e0.023105(80)  1.575
ln( e k )  ln(2.5) Thus, approximately1.6 g of cesium-137 remainsafter 80 years
k  ln(2.5) (c) 10e-0.023105t  2
k  0.91629 1
0.91629t e-0.023105t 
P(t )  10,000e 5
10,000e0.91629t  20,000 1
ln(e-0.023105t )  ln( )
e0.91629t  ln(2) 5
1
0.91629t  ln(2)  0.023105t  ln( )
5
ln(2) 1
t  0.756 ln( )
0.91629 5
Thus, the bacteria count will double in about 0.75 hours. t   0.023105t
(b.)
t  69.7
P (3)  10,000e 0.91629 ( 3)
The time required for the sample to decay to2 g is about 70 years
P (3)  157,249.66
The number of bacteria after 3 hours is about 156,250.
 7. 9. Given : (a) (b)
y  C (1  r ) t y  15000 (1  .15) 4 a  200 y  a (1  r ) t y  500(0.98) 6
C  15000 r  0.02 y  500(1  0.02) t
 15000 (0.85) 4 y  442.92
r  0.15
 15000 (0.522 ) t ?
t4 y  500(0.98) t
y  7830 .09

8. (a)
10. y  a (1  r ) t
Given : Given : 65  130(1  0.11) t
y  a(1  r )t
a  23000 y  23000(1  0.15)t a  130mg
0.5  (0.89) t
b  0 . 15 1
y  23000(0.85)t y  (130)  65mg log 0.5  log 0.89 t
t ?
2
log 0.5  t log 0.89
r  0.11
(b) log 0.5
t
y  23000 ( 0 .85 ) 4 log 0.89
 12006 .14375  5.9480
y  $ 12006 Approximately 6 hours.