Application of First Order Differential Equation

Application 1 : Exponential Growth Population

Let P(t) be a quantity that increases with time t and the rate of increase is proportional to the same quantity P as follows dP/dt=kP

where d p / d t is the first derivative of P, k > 0 and t is the time. The solution to the above first order differential equation is given by P(t) = A ek t

where A is a constant not equal to 0. If P = P0 at t = 0, then P0 = A e0 which gives A = P0 The final form of the solution is given by P(t) = P0 ek t Assuming P0 is positive and since k is positive, P(t) is an increasing exponential. d P / d t = k P is also called an exponential growth model.

Example :- Let population of country be decreasing at the rate proportional to its population. If the population has decreased to 25% in 10 years, how

long will it take to be half?

Solution: This phenomenon can be modeled by

dN ! kN( t ) dt

Its solution is (t)= (0) ekt, where (0) in the initial population

For t=10,

(10)=

1 (0) 4

1 (0) = 4 1 4

(0) e10k

or e10k=

or k=

1 1 ln 10 4 1 (0) 4 1

Set

(t)=

(0 )e 10

1 ln t 4

(0 )

ln
or t=

1
b 8.3 years approximately

1 1 ln 10 4

Application 2 : Exponential Decay Radioactive Material And Carbon Dating

Let M(t) be the amount of a product that decreases with time t and the rate of decrease is proportional to the amount M as follows dM/dt=-kM

where d M / d t is the first derivative of M, k > 0 and t is the time. Solve the above first order differential equation to obtain M(t) = A e- k t

where A is non zero constant. It we assume that M = M0 at t = 0, then M0 = A e0 which gives A = M0 The solution may be written as follows M(t) = M0 e- k t Assuming M0 is positive and since k is positive, M(t) is an decreasing exponential. d M / d t = - k M is also called an exponential decay model.

Carbon Dating:- The key to the carbon dating of paintings and

other materials such as fossils and rocks lies in the phenomenon of radioactivity discovered at the turn of the century. The physicist Rutherford and his colleagues showed that the atoms of certain

radioactive elements are unstable and that within a given time period a fixed portion of the atoms spontaneously disintegrate to form atoms of a new element. Because radioactivity is a property of the atom, Rutherford showed that the radioactivity of a substance is directly proportional to the number of atoms of the substance present. Thus, if then (t) denotes the number of atoms present at time t,

dN , the number of atoms that disintegrate per unit time, is dt

proportional to ; that is,

dN !  PN dt

( .5)

The constant P, which is positive, is known as the decay constant of the substance. The larger P is, the faster the substance decays. To compute the half life of substance in terms of P, assume that at time t=t0, N(t0)=N0. The solution of the initial value problem
dN !  PN dt

N(t0) = N0 is N(t)=N0e-P(t-to)

( .6)

or

N -P(t-t e o) No

Taking logarithms of both sides we obtain

N No

-P (t-t0)=ln

( .7)

If

N = No

, then -P (t-t0)=ln

, so that

t-t0 =

l P

. 9 P

Thus the half life of a substance is ln2 divided by the decay constant P. The half-life of many substances have been determined and are well published. For example, half-life of carbon-1 is 5568 years, and the half-life of uranium 238 is .5 billion years. Remarks) In ( .5) P is positive and is decay constant. We may write equation ( .5) in the form
dN ! PN, where P is negative constant, that is, P <0. dt

b) The dimension of P is reciprocal time. It t is measured in years, then P has the dimension of reciprocal years, and if

t is measured in minutes, then P has the dimension of reciprocal minutes. c) From ( .7) we can solve for No N

t-t0=

ln

( .8)

If t0 is the time the substance was initially formed or manufactured, then the age of the substance is 1 N0 . The decay ln P N

constant P is known or can be computed in most cases. N can be computed quite usually. Computation or pre-knowledge of N0 will yield the age of the substance. By the Libbys discovery discussed in Section 1. .2. the present rate R(t) of disintegration of the C-1 in the sample is given by R(t)= PN(t)= PN0e-Pt and the original rate of disintegration is R(o)=PN0. Thus R (t ) ! e  Pt so that R (0 ) 1 R( o ) t= ln P R (t )

( . )

d) If we measure R(t), that present rate of disintegration of the C-1 in the charcoal and observe that R(o) must equal the rate of disintegration of the C-1 in the comparable amount of living wood

then we can compute the age t of the charcoal. e) The process of estimating the age of an artifact is called carbon dating.

Application 3 : Falling Object

An object is dropped from a height at time t = 0. If h(t) is the height of the object at time t, a(t) the acceleration and v(t) the velocity. The relationships between a, v and h are as follows: a(t) = dv / dt , v(t) = dh / dt. For a falling object, a(t) is constant and is equal to g = - .8 m/s. Combining the above differential equations, we can easily deduce the follwoing equation d 2h / dt 2 = g Integrate both sides of the above equation to obtain dh / dt = g t + v0 Integrate one more time to obtain h(t) = (1/2) g t2 + v0 t + h0 The above equation describes the height of a falling object, from an initial height h0 at an initial velocity v0, as a function of time.

Application 4 : Newton's Law of Cooling

It is a model that describes, mathematically, the change in temperature of an object in a given environment. The law states that

the rate of change (in time) of the temperature is proportional to the difference between the temperature T of the object and the temperature Te of the environment surrounding the object. d T / d t = - k (T - Te)

Let x = T - Te so that dx / dt = dT / dt Using the above change of variable, the above differential equation becomes dx/dt=-kx

The solution to the above differential equation is given by x = A e -kt substitute x by T - Te T - Te = A e - k t Assume that at t = 0 the tempearture T = To To - Te = A e 0 which gives A = To - Te The final expression for T(t) i given by T(t) = Te + (To - Te)e - k t This last expression shows how the tempearture T of the object changes with time.

Application 5 : RL circuit

Let us consider the RL (resistor R and inductor L) circuit shown above. At t = 0 the switch is closed and current passes through the circuit. Electricity laws state that the voltage across a resistor of resistance R is equal to R i and the voltage across an inductor L is given by L di/dt (i is the current). Another law gives an equation relating all voltages in the above circuit as follows: L di/dt + Ri = E , where E is a constant voltage. Let us solve the above differential equation which may be written as follows L [ di / dt ] / [E - R i] = 1 which may be written as - (L / R) [ - R d i ] / [E - Ri] = dt Integrate both sides - (L / R) ln(E - R i) = t + c , c constant of integration. Find constant c by setting i = 0 at t = 0 (when switch is closed) which gives c = (-L / R) ln(E) Substitute c in the solution - (L / R) ln(E - R i) = t + (-L/R) ln (E) which may be written

(L/R) ln (E)- (L / R) ln(E - R i) = t ln[E/(E - Ri)] = t(R/L) Change into exponential form [E/(E - Ri)] = et(R/L) Solve for i to obtain i = (E/R) (1-e-Rt/L) The starting model for the circuit is a differential equation which when solved, gives an expression of the current in the circuit as a function of time.

Rates of Reactions And Rate Law

Consider a simple chemical reaction of the form 2A+B C.

This reaction involves the combination of two molecules of A and one molecule of B to form one molecule of C. Because we are assuming that the reaction is simple (that is, there are no intermediate steps), the concentration of A decreases at twice the rate that the concentration of B decreases. Thus, we have d[ A] =2 dt dt d[ B] .

Also, the concentration of C increases at the same rate that the concentration of B decreases, so d[ C] =dt 1 d[ A] 2 dt =dt dt d[ B] = dt d[ C] . d[ B] .

We can summarize the above two equations by writing

In general, for a simple chemical reaction of the form aA+bB we have 1 d[ A] a dt =b dt 1 d[B] = c dt 1 d[ C] = d dt 1 d[ D] cC+dD,

and we define the rate of the reaction, v( t) , as this common value. That is, 1 d[ A] v=a dt =b dt 1 d[B] = c dt 1 d[ C] = d dt 1 d[ D] .

Since the stoichiometric coefficients a, b, c, and d have no units, v has units of M/time. We stress that the reaction rate v is a function of time (t) because the reaction slows as the reactants are used up during the course of the reaction. The units of measurement of time for a particular reaction depend on the speed of the reaction. For a reaction that proceeds very quickly, it might be appropriate to measure time in seconds or milliseconds, whereas; for a very slow reaction such as the decay of some radioactive compounds, time is measured in years.

The Rate Law

An important concept of chemistry that is crucial to the development of mathematical models of chemical reactions is the Rate Law. For the homogeneous reaction aA+bB cC+dD

with reaction rate v (as defined in the previous section), the Rate Law gives the equation v( t) = k[ A] [ B] . (5) Equation (5) is the framework on which mathematical models of chemical reactions are built. In this equation, the constant of proportionality, k, is called the rate constant of the reaction, and the constants and are called the order of the reaction with respect to the reactants A and B respectively. The constants k, , and can be determined only by actual chemical experiments. In general, except possibly by coincidence, and are not related to the stoichiometric coefficients a and b. Also, and have no units of measurement and the units of k are determined by the values of and in the following way: Recalling that v has units of M/time and [

A] and [ B] both have units of M, writing equation (5) in terms of units, we obtain M = ( units of k) (M) E( M) F = (units of k) ME+F. time From this we obtain, M units of k = timeM
E+F

= M1-E-Ftime-1.

Example As an example of the Rate Law, suppose that we have a reaction 2A+B C+2D which is first order with respect to A and B (that is, E = F = 1), and has rate constant k = 0.02 M-1 min-1. Suppose also that this reaction takes place in a container of fixed volume. The Rate Law then gives us that the rate of this reaction is

v =0.02[A]1[B]1 (6)

Note that the stoichiometric coefficients play no role in the rate equation. However, if we wish to rewrite the rate equation in terms of the rate of consumption of one of the reactants (or the rate of formation of one of the products), then the stoichiometric coefficients do play a role. For example, using the fact that 1 d[ A] v=2 we obtain the rate equation dt ,

1 d[ A] 2 or equivalently d[ A] = -0.04[ A] [ B] dt for the rate of consumption of reactant A. Likewise, we also obtain the following differential equations for the concentrations of B, C, and D: d[ B] = -0.02[ A] [ B] dt d[ C] = 0.02[ A] [ B] dt d[ D] =0.04[A][B]. dt (7) dt = 0.02[ A] [B]

Application of Higher Order Differential Equation

Skydiving:The principal quantities used to describe the motion of an object are position ( s), velocity ( v), and acceleration ( a). Since velocity is the time derivative of the position, and acceleration is the time derivative of the velocity, acceleration is the second time derivative of the position. Therefore, the position function s( t) for a moving object can be determined by writing Newton's Second Law, Fnet = ma, in the form

and solving this second-order differential equation for s.

[You may see the derivative with respect to time represented by a dot. For example, ( s dot) denotes the first derivative of s with respect to t, and ( s double dot) denotes the second derivative of s with respect to t. The dot notation is used only for derivatives with respect to time.] Example 1: A sky diver (mass m) falls long enough without a parachute (so the drag force has strength kv2) to reach her first terminal velocity (denoted v1). When her parachute opens,the air resistance force has strength Kv. At what minimum altitude must her parachute open so that she slows to within 1% of her new (much lower) terminal velocity ( v2) by the time she hits the ground? Let y denote the vertical distance measured downward form the point at which her parachute opens (which will be designated time t = 0). Then Newton's Second Law ( Fnet = ma) becomes mg Kv = ma, or, since v = and a = ,

This situation is therefore described by the IVP

The differential equation is second-order linear with constant coefficients, and its corresponding homogeneous equation is

where B = K/m. The auxiliary polynomial equation, r2 = Br = 0, has r = 0 and r = B as roots. Since these are real and distinct, the general solution of the corresponding homogeneous equation is

The given non homogeneous equation has y = ( mg/K) t as a particular solution, so its general solution is

Now, to apply the initial conditions and evaluate the parameters c1 and c2:

These two equations imply

Once these values are substituted into (*), the complete solution to the IVP can be written as

The derivative of this expression gives the velocity of the sky diver t seconds after the parachute opens:

The question asks for the minimum altitude at which the sky diver's parachute must be open in order to land at a velocity of (1.01) v2. Therefore, set v equal to (1.01) v2 in equation (***) and solve for t; then substitute the result into (**) to find the desired altitude. Omitting the messy details, once the expression in (***) is set equal to (1.01) v2, the value of t is found to be

and substituting this result into (**) yields

To evaluate the numerical answer, the following values are used: mass of sky diver: gravitational acceleration: terminal velocity without parachute: m = 70 kg g = 9.8 m/s2

air resistance proportionality constant: K = 110 kg/s

terminal velocity with parachute:

These substitutions give a descent time t [the time interval between the parachute opening to the point where a speed of (1.01) v2 is attained] of approximately 4.2 seconds, and a minimum altitude at which the parachute must be opened of y 55 meters (a little higher than 180 feet).