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Applications of Ordinary Differential Equations

Ordinary differential equations are used in many applications including: 1. Population modelling and modeling the decay of radioactive substances over time. The half-life of a substance is the time it takes for 50% of the original amount to decay. 2. Newton's Law of Cooling models how the temperature of an object changes over time as it exchanges heat with its surroundings. 3. Electrical circuits can be modeled with differential equations to analyze properties like voltage and current over time.

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MJ Beatz
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227 views13 pages

Applications of Ordinary Differential Equations

Ordinary differential equations are used in many applications including: 1. Population modelling and modeling the decay of radioactive substances over time. The half-life of a substance is the time it takes for 50% of the original amount to decay. 2. Newton's Law of Cooling models how the temperature of an object changes over time as it exchanges heat with its surroundings. 3. Electrical circuits can be modeled with differential equations to analyze properties like voltage and current over time.

Uploaded by

MJ Beatz
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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APPLICATIONS OF ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

I. Population modelling
II. Radioactive decay

The half-life of a substance or a decaying material (or population) is the amount of time it
takes for 50% of the original amount of substance (or material or population) to decay.

Examples
1. Bismuth-210 has a half-life of 5.0 days.
a. Suppose a sample originally has a mass of 800 mg. Find a formula for the mass
remaining after t days.
b. Find the mass remaining after 30 days.
c. When is the mass reduced to 1 mg.

a.
The initial value problem for exponential decay

has particular solution

a. We need to find the relative decay rate k. After t = 5, the original population of 800
mg has decay to half of its original amount,

Using the decay equation, we have


Substituting k = 0.1386 and P0 = 800 gives a formula for finding the remaining mass.

after 30 days.

b. We want t when P(t) = 1.

Thus, it takes approximately t = 48.2 days for the substance to decay to 1 mg.
2. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon that has a half-life of 5600 years. It is used
extensively in dating organic material that is tens of thousands of years old. What fraction
of the original amount of Carbon-14 in a sample would be present after 10,000 years?
3. A zircon sample contains 4000 atoms of the radioactive element 235U. Given that 235U
has a half‐ life of 700 million years, how long would it take to decay to 125 atoms?

III. Newton’s Law of Cooling


Examples
IV. Electrical circuits

Examples

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