Exercise 8.

1. Suppose that P(x, y) be any point on a curve such that slope of tangent at P is
equal to xy. If the curve passes through point (0, 1), find the equation of the
curve.

2. Find the equation of the curve which passes through the point (2, 3) and the
portion of the tangent intercepted between the axes is bisected at the point of
contact.

3. Assume that the rate at which radioactive nuclei decay is proportional to the
number of such nuclei that are present in a given sample. In a certain sample
10 % of the original number of radioactive nuclei have undergone
disintegration in a period of 100 years.

(a) What percentage of the original radioactive nuclei will remain after 1000
years?

(b) In how many years will only one-fourth of the original number remain?

4. Assume that the population of a certain city increases at a rate proportional to

the number of inhabitants at any time. If the population doubles in 40 years, in
how many years will it triple?

5. In a certain bacteria culture the rate of increase in the number of bacteria is

proportional to the number present.

(a) If the number triples in 5 hours, how many will be present in 10 hours?

(b) When will the number present be 10 times the number initially present?

6. The human population x of a certain island satisfies the logistic law

dx
 0.03 x  3(10) 8 x 2 ,
dt
where time t is measured in years.

(a) If the population in 1980 is 200000, find a formula for the population in
future years.

(b) According to the formula of part (a), what will be the population in the year
2000?
(c) What is the limiting value of the population as t   ?

7. Newton’s law of cooling states that the rate at which a body cools is
proportional to the difference between the temperature of the body and that of
the medium in which it is situated. A body of temperature 80 F is placed at
time t = 0 in a medium the temperature of which is maintained at 50 F. At the
end of 5 minutes, the body has cooled to a temperature of 70 F.

(a) What is the temperature of the body at the end of 10 minutes?

 (b) When will the temperature of the body be 60 F?

8. The rate at which a certain substance dissolves in water is proportional at the

product of the amount undissolved and the difference c1  c 2 , where c1 is the
concentration in the saturated solution and c 2 is the concentration in the actual
solution. If saturated, 50 g of water would dissolve 20 g of the substance. If 10
g of the substance is placed in 50 g of water and half of the substance is then
dissolved in 90 minutes, how much will be dissolved in 3 hours?

9. An object with mass m is dropped from rest and we assume that the air
resistance is proportional to the speed of the object. If s(t) is the distance
dropped after t seconds, then the speed is v  s (t ) and the acceleration is
a  v (t ) . If g is the acceleration due to gravity, then the downward force on the
object is mg – cv, where c is a positive constant, and Newton’s Second Law
gives
dv
m  mg  cv
dt

(a) Solve this differential equation to find the velocity at time t.

(b) What is the limiting velocity?
(c) Find the distance the object has fallen after t seconds.

10. Among a population of N people, the number of the people x who have heard
a certain rumour is treated as a differentiable function of the time t, and the
dx
rate of diffusion  kx( N  x) , where k is a constant.
dt
1
Suppose t is measured by days, k  and two people start a rumour at
250
time t = 0 in the population of N = 1000 people.

(a) Find x which is a function of t.

(b) How long will it take for the rumour to be heard by half the population?

11. In an electrical circuit, the total resistance R and self inductance L are being
connected to an electrical source of e.m.f. E, where R, L and E are constants. The
relationship between the intensity of current i and time t is a linear first order
equation
di
L  Ri  E
dt

Find its general solution and also its particular solution when t = 0.

12. Under certain conditions, the result of the movement of a substance in a

solution across a cell membrane is described by the differential equation
dy kA
 (c  y ) .
dt V
 dy
In this equation, y is the concentration of the substance inside the cell and is
dt
the rate with which y changes over time. The letters k, A, V and c stand for
constants where k is the permeability coefficient(a property of the membrane), A
the surface area of the membrane, V the volume of the cell and c the concentration
of the substance outside the cell.

(a) Solve the differential equation for y(t), using y 0 to denote y(0).

(b) Find the steady-state concentration lim y (t ) .

t 

13. Under certain conditions, cane sugar in water is converted into dextrose at a
rate proportional to the mass of sugar unconverted. Write out the differential
equation concerned.
If there are 100 g of sugar at time t = 0 and 12 g of it are converted into
dextrose during the first 30 minutes, find the amount converted after 2 hours.