1. A concrete block falls from rest in a medium offering resistance.

The velocity of the block before it

reaches the ground is given by the differential equation dV/dt + V/10 = 32 m/s. What is the velocity of
the object one second after it falls?
Answer. 30.45 m/s

2. When a bullet is fired into a sand bag, its deceleration is assumed equal to the square root of its
velocity on entering. For how long will it travel if its velocity on entering the bank is 144 ft /sec?
Answer. 24 s

3. A population of certain community is found to increase proportional to the population present. The
current population is 1 million. In five years, the population is 3 million. Find the population 10 years
from now.
Answer. 9 million

4. A radioactive substance has a mass of 100 mg. After 10 years it has decayed to a mass of 75 mg.
What will the mass of the substance be after another 10 years?
Answer. 56.25 mg

5. Radium decomposes at a rate proportional to the amount at any instant. In 100 years, 100 mg of
radium decomposes to 96 mg. How many mg will be left after 200 years?
Answer. 92.16 mg

6. Dinosaur fossils are often dated by using an element other than carbon, such as potassium-40, that
has a longer half-life (in this case, approximately 1.25 billion years). A T-Rex fossil was found, and it
contains 0.1% of potassium-40. How old is the dinosaur fossil?
Answer. 12.46 billion years old

7. A certain radioactive substance has a half-life of 38 hr. Find how long it takes for 90% of the
radioactivity to be dissipated?
Answer. 126.23 hr.

8. The rate of population growth of a certain city is proportional to the number of inhabitants. If the city
population now is 40 million and is expected to double in 25 years, in how many years will the
population be three times the present?
Answer. 40 years

9. One hour after a bacteria colony starts growing, a scientist determines that there are 9000 bacteria
present. After another hour, there are 12,000 bacteria. How many bacteria were present initially?
Answer. 6750

10. Suppose we have a sample of a substance containing some carbon-14. Let m be the mass of carbon-
14 in nanograms after t years. It turns out that, if the sample is isolated, then m and t approximately
𝑑𝑚
satisfy the differential equation = −0.000121𝑚. Suppose our sample initially contains 100
𝑑𝑡
nanograms of carbon-14. Compute the half-life of carbon-14.
Answer: 5728.49 years