Homework 1 (To be edited: more questions will be added)

Questions 8, 9 and 10 page 24 ebook

And

Question 1:
The growth of cancerous tumor can be modeled by the Gompertz law. For N not too small,
we have

dN K
=rN . ln ( )
dt N
Where N is the number of tumor cells.
a) Interpret r and K biologically.
b) Find the equilibria points (Fixed points)
c) Using linear stability to discuss the stability of these equilibria
d) Find an explicit solution for this DE

Question 2:
(Improved model of a fishery)
dN
dt (
N
=rN 1− −H
K
N
A+ N)
Where H >0 and A> 0. This model is more realistic than the one done in class. It has N=0 as
a fixed point for all values of parameters and the rate at which fish are caught increases with
N (when fewer fish are available then it is hard to catch them).
a) Give a biological interpretation of the parameter A ; what does it measure?
b) Show that the system can be rewritten in dimensionless form as
dx x
=x (1−x )−h
du a+ x
For suitable defined dimensionless x ,u , a , and h .

c) Show that the system can have one, two, or three fixed points depending on the values
of a and h . Classify the stability of the fixed points in each case.