Mathematical Models in the Life and Social Sciences

MA 432, Spring 2005

Homework Assignments

Homeworks are designed to test how well you have understood the material presented in class. Hopefully, they will find out what points (if any) you need to have clarified (e.g. in office hours) or do more work on before they come up in a test. I will try to schedule homeworks so that you have a chance to come along to office hours before the due date.

• Homework THREE.

  Due Thursday, February 17th. If you work in pairs, make sure that both names appear on your answer sheet.

• Homework TWO.

  Due Thursday, February 3rd. If you work in pairs, make sure that both names appear on your answer sheet.
  Check that you have the most recent version of the sheet: it changed slightly after Tuesday's class.
  For question 2 you need the bacterial growth data (see the textbook, your notes or the 'practicals' page).
  For the third question you will need demographic data for Japan and Uganda (values of lambda_k, b_k and the age distribution at the initial time).
  You will find the MATLAB notes and the example MATLAB code useful.
  My worked answers to homework 2. MATLAB code : bacterial_growth.m, renewal.m, matrix_renewal.m.

• Homework ONE.

  Due Thursday, January 20th.
  Notes on homework one. These notes give both worked answers (to the non-computer parts) and some comments on background material. Because of this you will have to pick through the notes if you just want to find the answers!
  Homework one in MATLAB. Notes on the computer part of the homework. If you aren't familiar with MATLAB, you should first read An Introduction to MATLAB.