Metro High School Name

___________________________________________
AP Calculus AB

HW 7.2A – Differential Equations: Growth and Decay Period _____ Score ______ /
10
1.) A curve passes through the point (0,5) and has the property that the slope of the curve at every point P is
twice the y-coordinate of P. What is the equation of the curve?

2.) Newton’s Law of Cooling states that the rate of cooling of an object is proportional to the temperature
difference between the object and the outside air. Suppose that a roast turkey is taken from the oven
when its temperature has reached 185º and is placed on a table where the temperature is 75º. If R is the
dR
 k ( R  75)
temperature of the turkey after t minutes, then Newton’s Law of Cooling implies that dt .
a.) Solve the differential equation for R. Then b.) If the temperature of the turkey is 150º after
use the given information to find the particular half an hour, what is the temperature after 45
solution. minutes?

c.) When will the turkey have cooled to 100º?

3.) The rate of change of bears, N, in a population is directly proportional to 350  N . Time, t, is
measured in years. When t  0 , the population is 100 and when t  2 , the population has increased to
250.
a.) Write and solve a differential equation that describes this situation.

b.) Find the bear population in 3 years. lim N (t )

c.) Find t  .

4.) Let P(t ) represent the number of students in a school who buy their lunch after t weeks. Suppose P is
increasing at a rate proportional to 600  P where the constant of proportionality is k.
a.) Write the differential equation that describes this situation.

b.) If 300 students buy their lunch initially and 400 buy their lunches after 10 weeks, solve the DEQ.

c.) How many students will buy their lunch after 20 d.) If school went on endlessly () using this
weeks? pattern, what is the limit to the number of students
buying lunch?
5.) You win a well-known national sweepstakes. Your award is $100 a day for the rest of your life! You put
the money in a bank where it earns interest at a rate directly proportional to the amount M which is in the
dM
 100  kM
account. So, dt where k is the growth constant.
a.) Solve the DEQ in general given that at t  0 days, there is no money in the account.

.05
k
b.) Suppose you invest the money at 5% APR. So 365 . Solve the DEQ completely.

c.) How much money will you have at the end of d.) Assuming you live for 75 more years, how much
one year? will you take to the grave with you if you never
spent it?

e.) How long will it take you to become a f.) How about a billionaire?
millionaire?