Differential Equations

Homework 02
Mathematical Models 01

Give the mathematical model for every problem.

1. At time t = 0 a tank contains Q0 lb of salt dissolved

in 100 gal of water. Assume that water containing
0.25 lb of salt/gal is entering the tank at a rate of 3
gal/min and that the well-stirred mixture is draining
from the tank at the same rate. Find the amount of
salt Q(t) in the tank at any time t.

b) If substances P and Q are the same, then p = q.

Find the equation that gives the rate at which
concentration of X is changing.
5. In the investigation of a homicide or accidental death,
it is often important to estimate the time of death.
From the experimental observations, it is known that
the surface temperature of an object changes at a rate
proportional to the difference between the temperature of the object and that of the surrounding environment or ambient temperature. This is known as
Newtons law of cooling. Suppose that at time t = 0 a
corpse is discovered and its temperature is measured
to be 85 F and that two hours later its is 74 F . It
was measured the ambient temperature at 68 F and
remained almost constant. We assume that at the time of death, the body temperature was at the normal
value of 100 F . What is the expression that describes
the surface temperature at any time?

2. Suppose that a sum of money is deposited in a bank

or money fund that pays interest at an annual rate r. The value S(t) of the investment at any time t
depends on the frequency with which interest is compounded as well as on the interest rate. Financial institutions have various policies concerning compounding: some compound monthly, some weekly, some
even daily. If we assume that compounding takes place continuously,
a) The rate of change of the value of the investment
is dS/dt, and this quantity is equal to the rate at
which interest accrues, which is the interest rate
times the current value of the investment S(t).
Find an expression that calculates the value of
the investment at any time.

6. Suppose that 100 mg of thorium-234 are initially present in a closed container, and that thorium-234 is added to the container at a constant rate of 1 mg/day.
Find the amount Q(t) of thorium-234 in the container at any time, given that its decay rate is 0.02828
days1

b) Suppose that there may be deposits or withdrawals in addition to the accrual of interest, dividends, or capital gains. Assume that the deposits
or withdrawals take place at a constant rate k.
Find an expression that calculates the value of
the investment at any time.

7. A pond initially contains 1,000,000 gal of water and

an unknown amount of an undesirable chemical. Water containing 0.01 g of this chemical per gallon flows
into the pond at a rate of 300 gal/h. The mixture
flows out at the same rate, so the amount of water in
the pond remains constant. Assume that the chemical
is uniformly distributed throughout the pond. Write
a differential equation for the amount of chemical in
the pond at any time.

3. A radioactive material,such as the isotope thorium234,disintegrates at a rate proportional to the amount

currently present. If Q(t) is the amount present at time t. If 100 mg of thorium-234 decays to 82.04 mg in
1 week, find an expression for the amount of thorium234 present at any time t.

8. Your swimming pool containing 60,000 gal of water

has been contaminated by 5 kg of a nontoxic dye that
leaves a swimmers skin an unattractive green. The
pools filtering system can take water from the pool,
remove the dye, and return the water to the pool at
a flow rate of 200 gal/min. Write down the initial value problem for the filtering process; let q(t) be the
amount of dye in the pool at any time t.

4. A second order chemical reaction involves the interaction (collision) of one molecule of a substance P
with one molecule of a substance Q to produce one
molecule of a new substance X; this is denoted by
P + Q X. Suppose that p and q, where p 6= q,
are the initial concentrations of P and Q, respectively, and let x(t) be the concentration of X at time t.
Then px(t) and q x(t) are the concentrations of P
and Q at time t, and the rate at which the reaction occurs is proportional to the product of concentrations
of P and Q.

9. A body of constant mass m is projected away from the

earth in a direction perpendicular to the earths surface with an initial velocity v0 . Assuming that there
is no air resistance, but taking into account the variation of the earths gravitational field with distance,
find an expression for the velocity during the ensuing

a) Find the equation that gives the rate at which

concentration of X is changing.
1

JLFigueroa

Differential Equations
motion. The gravitational force acting on the body
(that is, its weight) is inversely proportional to the
square of the distance from the center of the earth.

Homework 02
Mathematical Models 01

forth) eat 20,000 mosquitoes/day. Determine the population of mosquitoes in the area at any time.
13. In the case of free fall, an object is released from a
certain height above the ground and falls under the
force of gravity. Newtons second law applies to this
situation and states that an objects mass times its acceleration equals the total force acting on it. Find the
second order differential equation for this problem.

10. A tank contains 100 gal of water and 50 oz of salt. Wa-

ter containing a salt concentration of 41 1 + 12 sin t
oz/gal flows into the tank at a rate of 2 gal/min, and
the mixture in the tank flows out at the same rate.
Find the amount of salt in the tank at any time.
11. A young person with no initial capital invests k dollars per year at an annual rate of return r. Assume
that investments are made continuously and that the
return is compounded continuously. Determine the
sum S(t) accumulated at any time t.

14. An object falls through the air toward Earth. Assuming that the only forces acting on the object are
gravity and air resistance, determine the velocity of
the object as a function of time.
15. Driver A had been leading archrival B for a while by
a steady 3 miles. Only 2 miles from the finish, driver
A ran out of gas and decelerated thereafter at a rate proportional to the square of his remaining speed.
Determine the velocity of driver A at any moment in
the last 2 miles of the race.

12. The population of mosquitoes in a certain area increases at a rate proportional to the current population,
and in the absence of other factors, the population
doubles each week. There are 200,000 mosquitoes in
the area initially, and predators (birds, bats, and so

Referencias
[1] Zill, Dennis G., A First Course in Differential Equations with Modeling Applications, ninth edition, Cengage
Learning, Canada, 2009.
[2] Kiseliov, A., Krasnov, M. and Makarenko, G., Problemas de Ecuaciones Diferenciales Ordinarias, Quinto
Sol, Mexico, 2009.

JLFigueroa