Annabelle Smith

BIO A 450
Autumn 2020
Problem Set 1

When it came to rounding, I rounded down since we are dealing with people and you cannot make
a whole person out of a fraction.
1a)
1. .

1b)
This population pyramid is broad at the bottom and narrow at the top. A large portion of the
population is young, with a high birth rate—this population appears to be growing fast. The narrow
shape at the top indicates a fairly low proportion of people live into old age, and women tend to live
longer than men. The most populous demographic is ages 10-14, suggesting there may have been a
baby boom around when those individuals were born, and the birth rate has declined slightly since
then. The majority of the population is under 29.

2a) After 10 years, the population will reach 1,066 individuals.

b) After 100 years, it will be 4,926.
c) After 500 years, it will be 4,423,291.
d) The population will double after 40.7 years.
3)
A large part of demography is understanding how populations change over time, and predicting how
they could continue to change. Models are helpful for visualizing and doing this.
Often it is hard for a model to include all the variables that could impact a population, such as limiting
resources. Though models often don’t perfectly fit the real world, they fit some portion of the real
world closely enough to make them useful in certain ways. They can be used for examining the trends
in data, and extrapolating to predict changes in the coming years.

4) a)

b) Total fertility rate: average expected children per woman who survives to menopause.
TFR for the MCH region: 3.04
TFR for the comparison region: 3.63
c)
d) The comparison region has the higher fertility rate. The TFR for this region is 3.63, while the TFR for
the MCH region is 3.04. Also, the graph clearly shows the ASFR higher in the comparison region,
especially for the peak childbearing years of 20-40.

5a) The population is growing. The crude birth rate is higher than the death rate, which means more
individuals are being added to the population than are leaving it.
b) In 1998, Matlab had about 2,898 births and 786 deaths.

6) 50 births and 10 deaths per thousand = 40 new individuals per 1000 (.04 r)
Nt = (N0) e^rt
Nt = (N0)e^((b-d)t)
2= 1e^[(0.05-0.01)t]
2 = e^ (0.04t)
a)Doubling time is 17.3 years
2 = e^ (0.01t)
b) Doubling time is 69.3 years

7)
Nt = population
N)= 200
R= 1.02
a) The population will be 243 after 10 generations
 b) The population will be 362 after 30 generations
c) The population will have doubled by 36 generations to 407 (it is approx 399.98 after 35
generations)

8)
a) 65
b) 375
c) 536
d) 501