Applications II

1. A population of bacteria grows at a rate proportional to its size. Write and solve a
differential equation that expresses this. If there are 1000 bacteria after one hour and
2000 bacteria after 2 hours, how many bacteria are there after three hours?

2. Rabbits in Madison have a birth rate of 5% per year and a death rate of 2% per year.
Each year 1000 rabbits get run over and 700 rabbits move in from San Prairie.
(a) Give 3 models of this problem.

(b) If there were 12,000 rabbits in Madison in 1991. Use these 3 models to compute
how many rabbits there were in 1994 respectively.

3. Salt mixture A tank initially contains 100 gal of brine in which 50 lb of salt are
dissolved. A brine containing 2 lb/gal of salt runs into the tank at the rate of 5
gal/min. The mixture is kept uniform by stirring and flows out of the tank at the rate
of 4 gal/min.
(a) At what rate (pounds per minute) does salt enter the tank at time t?

(b) What is the volume of brine in the tank at time t?

(c) At what rate (pounds per minute) does salt leave the tank at time t?

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 (d) Write down and solve the initial value problem describing the mixing process.

(e) Find the concentration of salt in the tank 25 min after the process starts.

4. Mixture problem A 200-gal tank is half full of distilled water. At time t = 0, a

solution containing 0.5 lb/gal of concentrate enters the tank at the rate of 5 gal/min,
and the well-stirred mixture is withdrawn at the rate of 3 gal/min.
(a) At what time will the tank be full?

(b) At the time the tank is full, how many pounds of concentrate will it contain?

5. Fertilizer mixture A tank contains 100 gal of fresh water. A solution containing 1
lb/gal of soluble lawn fertilizer runs into the tank at the rate of 1 gal/min, and the
mixtures is pumped out of the tank at the rate of 3 gal/min. Find the maximum
amount of fertilizer in the tank and the time required to reach the maximum.

6. Carbon monoxide pollution An executive conference room of a corporation con-

tains 4500 ft3 of air initially free of carbon monoxide. Starting at time t = 0, cigarette
smoke containing 4% carbon monoxide is blown into the room at the rate of 0.3 ft3 /min
. A ceiling fan keeps the air in the room well circulated and the air leaves the room ar
the same rate 0.3 ft3 /min. Find the time when the concentration of carbon monoxide
in the room reaches 0.01%.

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Solution:
1. 4000
2. (a) Let t be time in years since 1991, and R(t) the population of rabbits at time t.
dR
i. Model1 dt
= 0.03R 300
dR
ii. Model2 dt
= ln(1.03)R 300
iii. Model3 R(t + 1) = 1.03R(t) 300, t = 0, 1, 2, 3
(b) Its your homework
3. (a) 10 lb/min
(b) 100 + t
S(t)
(c) Let S(t) denote the mass of salt in the tank at time t. 100+t
4 lb/min
dS(t) S(t)
(d) dt
= 10 100+t
4, initial value S(0) = 50.
(e) 138.56 lb
4. (a) 50 min
(b) eqn: dC
dt
C
= 0.05 5 200+2t 3 where C(t) denotes the mass of the concentrate at
time t. Initial value: C(0) = 0. C(50) = 191.13 lb
F (t)
5. Let F (t) denote the mass of fertilizer in the time at time t. Eqn: Fdt(t) = 1 1002t 3,
1.5
initial value F (0) = 0. Sol:F (t) = (100 2t) 0.1(100 2t) . So, we need to find t
to make dF/dt = 0. When t = 27.78, F (t) gets its maximum 14.81.
6. Let S(t) be the volume of cigarette smoke at time t. Eqn: dS(t)
dt
S(t)
= 0.04 0.3 4500 0.3,
150001 t
initial value S(0) = 0. Sol: S(t) = 180(1 e ). We can get: when t = 37.55,
F (t) = 4500 0.01% = 0.45.