Math 125 Week 9: Dept of Math, Univ of Washington

Math 125 – Week 9

Week 8 outline

Math 125 main page

Week 10 outline

What Where Link

Reading Text – 9.1, 9.3, 3.8

Worksheet Website – Newton's law of cooling DiffEQ.pdf
Worksheet 9 Solutions

Homework WebAssign WebAssign site for UW

Student Guide:

The week is devoted entirely to Differential Equations. A large number of applied problems in Physics, Engineering, Economics and other areas can be modeled using Differential Equations. They are often very difficult to solve and we will focus on the just easiest cases. The notation and terminology are introduced in Section 9.1. Building a differential equation from a written description of a situation is discussed. General Solutions and Initial Value Problems are contrasted. Newton's Law of Cooling is introduced in an exercise.

Separable Equations are discussed in Section 9.3. These are Differential Equations that can be solved using the techniques we have been studying this quarter. Several applications are covered, including mixing problems. This is the core section of the week.

Section 3.8 covers Exponential Growth and Decay. This is Precalculus material and should be familiar. Focus on the aspects that are related to Differential Equations. Be sure you know how to solve these problems using the techniques of Section 9.3.

If time permits, Section 9.4 on the logistic equation will be discussed, also. This is an important equation for modeling population growth.

Differential Equations have many interesting and useful applications. The worksheet DiffEQ.pdf will introduce you to two of these, Newton's Law of Cooling and a model for the spread of a rumor. Both involve differential equations that can be solved by the method of Separation of Variables. The worksheet gives a step-by-step introduction to this method.

Week 8 outline

Math 125 main page

Week 10 outline