Differential Equations Tutor, Volume I

Worksheet 9

Mixing Problems (Applications of Differential

Equations)
 Worksheet for Differential Equations Tutor, Volume I, Section 9:

Mixing Problems (Applications of Differential Equations)

1. A tank of water is 100 gallons. Each minute, 1 gallon of water enters the tank with 5
grams of pollutants. The tank of water is evenly mixed. Each minute, one gallon of
the even mixture drains from the tank. If the tank starts full of water without pollutants,
how many grams of pollutants are there in the tank at time t?

2. A tub has been filled with 750L of water. Pollutants (skin cells, etc.) enter the tub at
oz L
the rate of 1 hr . The tub is filtered at the rate of 1 min , and the filtered water returns
to the tub without any pollutants. If the tub starts empty of pollutants, how many
pollutants are there in the tub at time t?

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 m 3
3. A pond holds 65m3 of water. The water flows in and out at 1 min and mixes evenly.
The amount of pollutants in the inflowing water is 1
60
sin2 (αt) mkg3 where t is measured
in hours. Find the general solution for the amount of pollutants in the pond at time t.

4. Prospectors are prospecting for gold in a 106 L tank of water. The seawater contains
10−11 grams of gold per liter. They can process ten liters of water per second from
2
that tank. Whenever they process ten liters of water, they successfully prospect 3
of
1
the gold contained, while the other 3
of the gold and all of the water returns to the
9
tank. How long does it take them to extract 10
of the gold?

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5. An online university has 50, 000 students. Every day, 100 students enter and 100 stu-
dents leave. The students who leave the university are evenly distributed across all
different programs, and a student is equally likely to leave at any time regardless of
time already spent at the university. Five percent of the incoming students are plan-
ning to study math. Also, every day, 0.1% of math students decide to switch to physics.
If there are 3000 math students at the beginning, how many math students are there
at time t? (Since these are math students, they are not necessarily numbered in
integers - there can be e students, for instance.)

6. In an ecosystem, there are 1000kg of water split between the liquid state and the
gaseous state. The rate of precipitation of the water (gas becoming liquid) is 10% per
1
day. The rate of evaporation of the water (liquid becoming gas) is 1.11% which is 90

per day. If all of the water starts as gaseous, how will the system behave? If all the
water starts as liquid?

3
7. Water enters a sea at 100 ms . Also, 1
1000
of the water in the sea evaporates per second.
If the sea starts at 100000m3 of water, how much water will remain at time t? What if

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 the rate of water inflow is 100 1000√1 t+1 cubic meters per second and the rate of water
1
1+ t+1
evaporation is 1000
cubic meters per second? Compare the systems that result from
these two slightly different conditions.

3 t2
8. During a rainstorm, water flows into a lake with volume 250m3 at 7 ms . There are 100

grams of pollution per cubic meter of water: the amount of pollution increases with
time during the rainstorm. The water mixes evenly, and the rate of outflow is the same
as the rate of inflow. If there is no pollution in the lake at the beginning, describe the
amount of pollution as a function of time t.

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 9. The human bloodstream has volume V , of which b proportion (grams per volume) is
iron. Every day, the intake of iron into the bloodstream is n grams. Every day, also,
f proportion of the bloodstream is flushed and its iron is lost. How must n relate to
b, f, V for the body to be in equilibrium? If the person suddenly loses 10 percent of
their blood due to donating blood, how long does it take them to regain ninety percent
of the iron that was lost?

10. Although usually thought of directly in terms of exponentials, we can imagine ra-
dioactive decay as a mixture problem - a mixture of isotopes. Let there be a sample
of 5000g of uranium, mixed as 99% of uranium-238 and 1% of uranium-234. Assume
a constant rate of decay of the uranium-238, where after each second the proportion
of uranium-238 that remains is α1 and the rest decays into uranium-234. Likewise,
assume a constant rate of decay of uranium-234, where after each second the pro-
portion of uranium-234 that remains is α2 and the rest decays into other matter. How
long does it take for the amount of uranium-234 to become half of its initial quantity?
Hint: you can assume that the amount of U-238 remains constant, since its decrease
will be so small over the time frame of this experiment.

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Answer key.

1. A tank of water is 100 gallons. Each minute, 1 gallon of water enters the tank with 5
grams of pollutants. The tank of water is evenly mixed. Each minute, one gallon of
the even mixture drains from the tank. If the tank starts full of water without pollutants,
how many grams of pollutants are there in the tank at time t?

This word problem indicates a differential equation. We want to find the amount of
pollution in the tank as a function of time, x(t). The initial condition is clear. Since
there are no pollutants in the pool at t = 0, we have

x(0) = 0

We still, however, have to find the differential equation for how the change in the
amount of pollutants relates to the amount of pollutants. In other words, we need to
turn this word problem into a differential equation.

We cannot immediately find an equation for the amount of pollutants x(t). The amount
of pollutants flowing into the pool is constant, but the amount of pollutants being re-
moved varies. For instance, after one minute, 5g of pollutants have entered the tank.
However, one gallon - which is 1% of the tank - drains, and with it 0.05g of pollutants.
So after one minute, 4.95g of pollutants are in the tank. In the second minute, 5g more
of pollutants enter the tank to bring the amount up to 9.95g - but then 1% of the tank
and 1% of the pollutants, which is 0.0995g of pollutants, drain, leaving us with 9.8505g
of pollutants. In the third minute, the amount of pollutants goes up to 14.8505g but
then 0.148505g of pollutants drain from the tank...

This modeling of the number of pollutants in the tank does not give us an explicit an-
swer or formula for the amount of pollutants in the tank. Moreover, there is a problem

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in this analysis. It treats the process of adding and removing pollutants as discrete. In
this model, the process of removing pollutants only happens at the end of the minute.
Really, the removal of pollutants is a continual process. The outflow of water is hap-
pening throughout the first minute, so at the end of the first minute there are not 5g
of pollutants in the tank because the tank has already drained 1% of its volume along
with some of the pollutants. How many pollutants were in the 1% that was drained? It
is difficult to come up with a numerical form for the answer, since this is a continuous
time process and not a discrete time process.

This analysis, however, does give us an important clue. We can use this analysis
to find the steady-state solution: when the rate of inflow of pollutants exactly equals
the rate of outflow of pollutants, so that there is no change in the system. The rate of
g g
inflow is always 5 min . The rate of outflow for equilibrium, then, should be 5 min . That is,
the steady state is when the 1% of the tank that outflows in a minute always contains
g
5g, so the rate of outflow is also equal to 5 min . If the amount of pollutants is constant
because the outflow is continuously replenished by the inflow, there is no question of
discrete time steps - we can easily model the flow as continuous. This happens when
1% of the tank has 5g of pollution, so the entire tank has 5g · 100 = 500g of pollution.

However, we are not in the steady-state solution, because the tank starts with 0g of
pollution. Then, at the beginning, rather than draining 5g of pollutants per minute, the
tank is draining 0g of pollutants per minute and then 0.05g per minute. The amount of
pollutants is increasing until it approaches the steady-state amount. If the tank were
g g
to start with 600g of pollutants, the inflow - 5 min - would be less than the outflow - 6 min ,
and the amount of pollutants would decrease until it approached the steady-state so-
lution.

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We can understand the behavior of this tank with two diagrams, one showing the flow
of water and the other the flow of pollutants:

First plot for 1

The important thing to note about the flow of water is that the amount of water in the
gal
tank remains constant. The inflow is a constant rate of 1 min and the outflow is also a
gal gal
constant rate of 1 min . Then, the amount of water in the tank is a constant 100 tank and
1 tank
the drainage of the tank is 100 min
. We need to be careful to avoid confusion between
the flow of water, measured in gallons, and the flow of pollutants, measured in grams.
The flow of pollutants is in the next diagram:

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 Second plot for 1

At any time t, we let the amount of pollutants be x(t). The rate of inflow of pollutants
g 1 tank
is 5 min . What is the rate of outflow? The tank is drained uniformly at 100 min
. The
drainage in pollutants is then
g
x(t)
min
g
Since the units for x(t) is tank
, the units for drainage is x(t) times the drainage rate
which results in grams per minute.

There may be confusion here because the amount of pollutants x(t) is constantly
changing. How then can we measure the drainage in pollutants per minute, if x(t)

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varies on scales much smaller than a minute? Actually, the drainage in pollutants is
instantaneous, even though it is measured in grams per minute. Just because the
metric is grams per minute, the measurement is still of instantaneous drainage. A car
travels at 60 mi
h
, but this speed still can tell us how fast the car moves in a second,
even if the car doesn’t travel for a full hour or changes its speed at some time in that
hour. The measurement is still in miles per hour.

Now, we can set up a differential equation. We have:

Change in amount of pollutants = Inflow of pollutants − Outflow of pollutants

g
All of these quantities are in min
. Even though we can consider smaller quantities of
time than a minute, we still measure the rates in grams per minute. In other word, we
have
dx g g x g
=5 −
dt min min 100 min
This is a differential equation relating the change in the amount of pollutants to the
amount present, at any instantaneous or continuous time t. Now, having set up the
problem, we can drop the units and solve
dx x
=5−
dt 100
This is a separable differential equation: we have
dx
x = dt
5 − 100
Simplifying the denominator, we have
100dx
= dt
500 − x
or
dx 1
= dt
500 − x 100
Then, integrating,
Z Z
dx 1 t
= dt = +C
500 − x 100 100

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The integral on the left-hand side can be solved by a u-substitution of

u = 500 − x

and then
du
= −1, dx = −du
dx
so it is
Z
du
− = − ln |u| + C = − (ln |500 − x|) + C
u
Combining the constants on one side, then, we have

t
− ln |500 − x| = +C
100

so
t
ln |500 − x| = − +C
100
redefining the constant as its negative. Exponentiating, then
t t
|500 − x| = e− 100 +C = Ce− 100

As usual, we can drop the absolute values in these cases. The reason why we can
consistently drop the absolute value is that 500 − x is either positive or negative. It
cannot be both positive and negative since 500 is the steady-state solution. If x is
less than 500 grams of pollution it will approach the steady-state from below, but if x
is more than 500 grams of pollution it will approach the steady-state from above. It
cannot cross the steady-state since the steady-state is an equilibrium. This is a case
like the asymptotes in the differential equations we graphed. So we have
t
500 − x = Ce− 100

and then
t
x(t) = 500 − Ce− 100

This is the general solution. Our conclusions from above that eventually the amount
of pollutant converges to the steady-state solution is borne out. Whether C is positive

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 t
or negative, the term Ce− 100 vanishes with large t, and limt→∞ x(t) = 500.

We can use the initial condition to find the specific solution. We have

x(0) = 0

so
0
x(0) = 500 − Ce− 100 = 0

which means
0 = 500 − C, C = 500

so the specific solution for the amount of pollutants in the pool at time t is
t
Answer: x(t) = 500 − 500e− 100 g

We can note that, even time is measured in minutes, the time t is allowed to be frac-
tional or in fact any real number. This is not a model of discrete time steps, but a
model of continuous time since t is continuous. As usual, we could check our work
here by plugging x(t) into the original differential equation.

We can compare the results from this continuous solution for x(t) to the results for
polution from the discrete time steps model that we found above:

t Continuous time model Discrete time model

0min 0g 0g

1min 4.975g 4.95g

2min 9.9g 9.8505g

3min 14.78g 14.70g

As we can see, there is a significant difference between the continuous time model
and the discrete time model. The continuous time model is, of course, more accurate.

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After 1 hour, there are 225g of pollution in the tank; after 2 hours, there are 350g of
pollution in the tank; after 3 hours there are 417g of pollution in the tank; and after 10
hours there are 499g of pollution in the tank, growing exponentially up to the steady-
state value of 500g.

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2. A tub has been filled with 750L of water. Pollutants (skin cells, etc.) enter the tub at
oz L
the rate of 1 hr . The tub is filtered at the rate of 1 min , and the filtered water returns to
the tub without any pollutants. If the tub starts empty of pollutants, how many pollu-
tants are there in the tub at time t?

Rather than the pollution entering a tank as a mixture, we are told that the pollu-
tion enters the tub as a separate substance. We don’t need to do a calculation to
determine the rate of inflow of pollutants; we have

oz
Rin = 1
hr

We do note that we will need to have consistent units per time. One rate is in terms
of minutes but another rate is in terms of hours. It seems to make more sense to
L
refer to all times and rates in terms of hours. If the water filters from the tub at 1 min , it
L 60 tank
also filters at a rate of 60 hr which is 750 hr
since there are 750 liters per tank. That is,
60
750
of the tank filters in an hour. As above, even though an hour is a discrete unit of
time, this is a rate so we can look at the flow into the tub in terms of continuous time.
Even though the pollutant flow is measured in units per hour, this rate applies to an
arbitrarily small unit of time.

Let the amount of pollutants at time t be x(t) measured in ounces. Since the pool is
empty of pollutants at the beginning, we have

x(0) = 0

60
The rate of outflow of the pool is that 750
of the tub drains per hour, which is

60 2
=
750 25
1
This is in units hr
.Then, the rate of outflow of pollutants per hour is

2
x(t)
25

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 oz 2
which has units hr
. Because the tub is evenly mixed, if 25
of the water drains per hour,
2 2
also 25
of the pollutants drain per hour, which is 25
x(t). This is true at any instant even
if x is changing and even if we can’t find an easy average rate of outflow. We have

dx 2
= Rin − Rout = 1 − x(t)
dt 25

Then, we have reduced this word problem into a differential equation:

dx 2
= 1 − x(t), x(0) = 0
dt 25

This is a separable differential equation, and we have

dx
2 = dt
1 − 25 x(t)

Integrating, then,
Z Z
dx 25dx
2 = = dt = t + C
1 − 25 x 25 − 2x
We can solve the left-hand integral by making a u-substitution of

u = 25 − 2x

Then,
du
= −2
dx
and
1
dx = − du
2
Then, the left-hand side is
Z Z Z
25dx 25 1 25 1 25 25
= · − du = − = − ln |u| = − ln |25 − 2x|
25 − 2x u 2 2 u 2 2

which we set equal to t + C. Then,

2
ln |25 − 2x| = − t+C
25

and
2 2
|25 − 2x| = e− 25 t+C = Ce− 25 t

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As usual in these situations, we can drop the absolute value because the constant
can be positive or negative to see that
2
−2x = −25 + Ce− 25 t

and
25 2
x(t) = + Ce− 25 t
2
This is the general solution for the amount of pollutants in the pool at time t. We know
that the pool starts clean with x(0) = 0, so we can solve for the specific solution:

25
x(0) = + Ce0 = 0
2

so
25
C=−
2
and the specific solution is

25 25 − 2 t
Answer: x(t) = − e 25
2 2
measured in ounces as t is measured in hours. We could derive an equivalent result
if we took all our times in terms of minutes. At large time scales (t at least 24 hours),
25
the amount of pollutants in the pool converges to 2
ounces.

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 m 3
3. A pond holds 65m3 of water. The water flows in and out at 1 min and mixes evenly.
The amount of pollutants in the inflowing water is 1
60
sin2 (αt) mkg3 where t is measured
in hours. Find the general solution for the amount of pollutants in the pond at time t.

In this problem, the flow of pollutants is variable with time, say, on a diurnal cycle
dx
(depending on the parameter α). The change in the amount of pollutants dt
is the
rate of added pollutants minus the rate of subtracted pollutants. We first want to find
the rate of added pollutants per hour. There are

1 kg
sin2 (αt) 3
60 m

of pollutants in the inflowing water. We want to use a consistent unit of time (hours),
so we take the rate of inflow of water as

m3 m3
1 = 60
min hr

Then, the inflow of pollutants per hour is

1
sin2 (αt) · 60 = sin2 (αt)
60

which has units

kg m3 kg
3
· =
m hr hr
The rate of subtracted pollutants varies with the number of pollutants present, be-
1
cause the pond drains an even mixture. Every minute, 65
of the pond drains; every
60 12
hour, 65
= 13
of the pond drains. Then, the rate of drainage of pollutants is

12
x(t)
13

and we have
dx 12
= sin2 (αt) − x(t)
dt 13
This is a linear nonhomogeneous differential equation with standard form

dx 12
+ x(t) = sin2 (αt)
dt 13

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The related homogeneous equation is

dx 12
+ x(t) = 0
dt 13

This is a separable equation,

dx 12
= − dt
x 13
so
12
ln |x| = − t+C
13
Then,
12
x = Ce− 13 t

This is the solution to the related homogeneous equation, so we expect a solution to

the nonhomogeneous equation of the form

12
x(t) = k(t)e− 13 t

for a nonhomogeneous term t. Since

dx 12
+ x(t) = sin2 (αt)
dt 13

we have
12 12 12 12 12
k 0 (t)e− 13 t − k(t)e− 13 t + k(t)e− 13 t = sin2 (αt)
13 13
or
12
k 0 (t)e− 13 t = sin2 (αt)

which means that

12
k 0 (t) = sin2 (αt)e 13 t

Then,
Z
12
k(t) = sin2 (αt)e 13 t dt

To resolve this integral, we can first note that

1 − cos 2β
sin2 β =
2

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so
1 − cos(2αt)
sin2 (αt) =
2
and we have
12 12
e 13 t e 13 t cos(2αt)
Z Z
k(t) = dt − dt
2 2
The first integral is
12
e 13 t
Z
13 12
dt = e 13 t
2 24
The second integral is more complicated. We need to use integration by parts twice.
We have that
12 12 12
e 13 t cos(2αt) e 13 t sin(2αt) 3e 13 t sin(2αt)
Z Z
dt = − dt
2 4α 13α

The second integral is, again by integration by parts,

12 12 12
3e 13 t sin(2αt) 3e 13 t cos(2αt) 18e 13 t cos(2αt)
Z Z
dt = − + dt
13α 26α2 169α2

and the last integral is a multiple of the original integral that we set out to solve by
integration by parts! So we have that
Z 12 t 12 12 12
!
e 13 t sin(2αt) 3e 13 t cos(2αt) 18e 13 t cos(2αt)
Z
e 13 cos(2αt)
dt = − − + dt
2 4α 26α2 169α2

so
12 12 12
e 13 t cos(2αt) e 13 t sin(2αt) 3e 13 t cos(2αt)
 Z
36
1+ dt = +
169α2 2 4α 26α2
and then
12 12 12
!
Z t 2 t t
e 13 cos(2αt) 169α e 13 sin(2αt) 3e cos(2αt) 13
dt = +
2 169α2 + 36 4α 26α2

so the nonhomogeneous term is

12 12
!
13 12 169α2 e 13 t sin(2αt) 3e 13 t cos(2αt)
k(t) = e 13 t − + +C
24 169α2 + 36 4α 26α2

Then,
12
k(t)h(t) = k(t) · e− 13 t
13 169α sin(2αt) 39 cos(2αt) 12
= Answer: − 2
− 2
+ Ce− 13 t
24 676α + 144 338α + 72

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This is the general solution. No matter the initial value which determines C, as t → ∞
the behavior of this function is 13
24
− 169α sin(2αt)
676α2 +144
− 39 cos(2αt)
338α2 +72
. This is the amount of pollution
13
in this pond. The average amount of pollution, then, is 24
units because the averages
of sine and cosine are both zero. This problem shows how mixing problems can be
used in more complex scenarios.

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4. Prospectors are prospecting for gold in a 106 L tank of water. The seawater contains
10−11 grams of gold per liter. They can process ten liters of water per second from
2
that tank. Whenever they process ten liters of water, they successfully prospect 3
of
1
the gold contained, while the other 3
of the gold and all of the water returns to the
9
tank. How long does it take them to extract 10
of the gold?

We can draw diagrams to map the flow of water and gold in this tank:

First plot for 6

We let the amount of gold in the tank be g(t) grams. Then, the amount of gold per
g(t)
liter is 106
grams per liter since the capacity of the tank is 106 liters. In the ten liters of
g(t)
water, there are 105
grams of gold. This is the amount of gold that passes out of the
1
tank every second in the water to be filtered. Of this amount, 3
of the gold returns to

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the tank:

Second plot for 6

Then, we have
dg g(t) 1 g(t) 2 g(t)
= gin − gout = − 5 + 5
=−
dt 10 3 10 3 105
This is a separable differential equation that we can solve for g(t):

dg 2 1
=− dt
g 3 105

so
2 t
ln |g| = − +C
3 105
The amount of gold in the tank can never be negative, so we can drop the absolute
value and write
2 t
g(t) = Ce− 3 105

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 1g
Finally, we know the initial amount of gold. The initial concentration of gold is 1011 L
so
1
the amout per 106 L is 105
g. So we have

1
g(0) =
105
1
and then C = 105
so the amount of gold left in the tank at time t is

1 − 32 t5
g(t) = e 10
105

Perhaps more relevant, the amount of gold that has been harvested is

1 1 2 t
h(t) = 5
− 5 e− 3 105
10 10

which is the total amount of gold minus the amount of gold that remains. We have

h(0) = 0

because no gold has been harvested at the beginning. Nine-tenths of the gold has
9 1
been harvested when h(t) = 10
· 105
or

9 1 1 1 2 t
· 5 = 5 − 5 e− 3 105
10 10 10 10

This is when
1 1 2 t
− 6
= − 5 e− 3 105
10 10
or when
1 2 t
= e− 3 105
10
or when
3 1 3
t = − · 105 · ln = · 105 ln 10 ≈ 345387s
2 10 2
We use seconds because all of our time measurements are in seconds. In days, this
1
is a little less than four days. All of this to recover most of the 105
grams of gold in the
tank, which is worth about 0.04 cents in total at current market prices. Not a get-rich
quick scheme by any stretch of the imagination.

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5. An online university has 50, 000 students. Every day, 100 students enter and 100 stu-
dents leave. The students who leave the university are evenly distributed across all
different programs, and a student is equally likely to leave at any time regardless
of time already spent at the university. Five percent of the incoming students are
planning to study math. Also, every day, 0.1% of math students decide to switch to
physics. If there are 3000 math students at the beginning, how many math students
are there at time t? (Since these are math students, they are not necessarily num-
bered in integers - there can be e students, for instance.)

This is a different sort of mixing problem. Rather than the mixing of liquids or sub-
stances, it is students that are being mixed. In this problem, we can treat the number
of students at any given time as a real number and not necessarily a positive integer.
This is only a mathematical model that uses the continuum to make a discrete ap-
proximation.

We seek to understand the flow of students. The size of the university is constantly
50, 000, because 100 students enter and 100 students leave each day.

It is a more challenging problem to understand the flow of math students. Every day,
100 students enter, of which five percent of the students enter in math. Every day,
5
then, the number of math students increases by 100 · 100
= 5.

How many math students leave every day? The answer is as a function of the initial
size of the math department. If the department contains 1000 students, then the
departure of 0.1% of the students to physics will mean that one student departs. In
general, if the number of math students at any given time is m(t), then the number of

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students that depart to physics is
m(t)
1000
which is one tenth of a percent of m(t). How many math students leave the university
each day? A total of 100 students leave out of the 50, 000 students in total, so the
proportion of students that leave each day is

100 1
=
50, 000 500

The number of math students that leave each day is

m(t)
500

The flow through the math department, then, can be diagrammed as follows:

Plot for 4

We want to set up a differential equation to understand the change in the number of

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mathematics students. We have

d
m(t) = m+ − m−
dt

where m+ is the inflow of mathematics students per unit time and m− is the outflow.
We have
students
m+ = 5
day
and
m(t) students m(t) physicists 3m(t) students
m− = + =
500 day 1000 day 1000 day
so
dm 3
=5− m(t)
dt 1000
This is a differential equation that can be solved using the techniques of separable
equations. We have
dm
3 = dt
5 − 1000 m
or
1000dm
= dt
5000 − 3m
Integrating, then,
Z Z
1000dm
= dt = t + C
5000 − 3m
To solve the integral on the left-hand side, we make a u-substitution of

u = 5000 − 3m

Then,
du
= −3
dm
and
1
dm = − du
3
so we have
Z Z Z
1000dm 1000 1 1000 1 1000 1000
= ·− du = − du = − ln |u| = − ln |5000 − 3m|
5000 − 3m u 3 3 u 3 3

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where we move the constant to the right-hand side. Then, we have

1000
− ln |5000 − 3m| = t + C
3

or
3t
ln |5000 − 3m| = − +C
1000
Exponentiating,
3t
|5000 − 3m| = Ce− 1000

We can drop the absolute value since 5000 − 3m is either positive or negative (this
5000
corresponds to the equilibrium at m = 3
) so we have

3t 5000 3t 5000 3t
5000 − 3m = Ce− 1000 , − m = Ce− 1000 , m = + Ce− 1000
3 3

This is the general solution for the number of mathematics students at time t or on
day t. We can apply the initial condition

m(0) = 3000

At the initial time, for whatever reason, the math department is much larger than
usual. We have
5000
m(0) = + Ce0 = 3000
3
so
5000 4000
C = 3000 − =
3 3
and the specific solution is

5000 4000 − 3t
Answer: m(t) = + e 1000
3 3

At t = 0, the number of students is 3000; as t → ∞, the number of math students goes

5000
to 3
which is not an integer but which is an acceptable number of math students for
the purposes of this problem. After one year the number of math students is slightly
over 2100; after three years the number of math students is 1721 which is nearly at
the equilibrium.

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6. In an ecosystem, there are 1000kg of water split between the liquid state and the
gaseous state. The rate of precipitation of the water (gas becoming liquid) is 10% per
1
day. The rate of evaporation of the water (liquid becoming gas) is 1.11% which is 90

per day. If all of the water starts as gaseous, how will the system behave? If all the
water starts as liquid?

Let the amount of water in the liquid state be w(t). The change in the amount of liquid
water is equal to the amount of water that precipitates minus the amount of water that
evaporates. The amount of water that precipitates is based on the amount of water in
the gaesous state, which is
1000 − w(t)

since the total amount of water is fixed. The ten percent that precipitates, then, is
1 w(t)
(1000 − w(t)) = 100 −
10 10
The amount of water that evaporates is
w
90
Then, we have
dw w w
= 100 − −
dt 10 90
This is a separable differential equation. First, we combine
w w 10w w
+ = =
10 90 90 9
Then, we have
dw
w = dt
100 − 9
so
Z Z
dw
w = dt = t + C
100 − 9
The left-hand side is
Z
9dw
= −9 ln |900 − w|
900 − w

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which we set equal to t + C. Then,

1
ln |900 − w| = − t + C
9

and
1
|900 − w| = Ce− 9 t

so
1
w(t) = 900 + Ce− 9 t

The equilibrium state is when 900kg of the mixture are water and the remaining 100kg
are gas. If the initial condition is w(t) = 1000 corresponding to all water, then

1
Ce− 9 (0) = 100, C = 100

and the specific solution is

1
Answer: w(t) = 900 + 100e− 9 t

If the initial condiiton is w(t) = 0 corresponding to all gas, then C = −900 and the
specific solution is
1
Answer: w(t) = 900 − 900e− 9 t

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 30
 3
7. Water enters a sea at 100 ms . Also, 1
1000
of the water in the sea evaporates per second.
If the sea starts at 100000m3 of water, how much water will remain at time t? What if
the rate of water inflow is 100 1000√1 t+1 cubic meters per second and the rate of water
1
1+ t+1
evaporation is 1000
cubic meters per second? Compare the systems that result from
these two slightly different conditions.

A quick observation will note that this system is in equilibrium. The rate of evapo-
1 3
ration per second is 1000
of the total volume, which is 100 ms at the beginning, which
is exactly equal to the rate of inflow. Therefore the amount of water will not change
because the system remains in perfect equilibrium under the basic assumptions.

What if the rate of water evaporation differs in the more complex problem? If the
amount of water at time t is w(t), we have
1
dw 1 1 + t+1
√
= 100 1000 − w(t) ·
dt t+1 1000
1
1+ t+1
because the proportion of water leaving the system is 1000
and this is multiplied
by the amount of water in the system. This is a nonhomogeneous linear differential
equation. Its standard form is
1
dw 1 + t+1 1
+ w(t) √
= 100 1000
dt 1000 t+1
and the related homogeneous form is
1
dw 1 + t+1
+w =0
dt 1000

This is separable:
1
dw 1 + t+1
=− dt
w 1000
so
t + ln(t + 1)
ln |w| = − +C
1000

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 31
and
t+ln(t+1)
w = Ce− 1000

This is a solution to the related homogeneous equation. Then, we expect a solution

to the nonhomogeneous differential equation of the form
t+ln(t+1)
w(t) = k(t)e− 1000

for some function k(t). We have

1
dw 1 + t+1 t+ln(t+1)
+w = k 0 (t)e− 1000
dt 1000
dw
after the usual cancellation between the second term of dt
and the w-term. This we
set equal to the nonhomogeneous term 100 1000√1 t+1 . We have
t+ln(t+1) t ln(t+1) t
√
1000 t 1
e− 1000 = e− 1000 e− 1000 = e− 1000 e− ln(t+1) = e− 1000 √
1000
t+1
There is a cancellation with the nonhomogeneous term so then
t
k 0 (t)e− 1000 = 100

and
t
k 0 (t) = 100e 1000
so Z
t t
k(t) = 100e 1000 = 100000e 1000 + C
Then, the general solution is
 t
 t+ln(t+1) ln(t+1) t+ln(t+1)
x(t) = k(t)h(t) = 100000e 1000 + C e− 1000 = 100000e− 1000 + Ce− 1000

100000 − t+ln(t+1)
= √
1000
+ Ce 1000
t+1
The initial condition is
x(0) = 100000

so we have then that

C=0

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 32
and the amount of water is given by

100000
Answer: √
1000
t+1

cubic meters of water in the lake at time t. The reason for this gradual decrease is
that the rate of inflow goes down but there always is at least some evaporation. As
w(t)
t → ∞, the inflow rate 100 1000√1 t+1 → 0, but the outflow rate goes to 1000
cubic meters
which only goes to zero with w(t). This decrease, however, is extremely slow: after
30 years, the volume is still 98% of the original volume; after 30, 000 years, the volume
is still at 97% of the original volume; and so on. The perturbation here is small but
completely changes the end behavior of the solution at extremely large time scales.

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 33
 3 t2
8. During a rainstorm, water flows into a lake with volume 250m3 at 7 ms . There are 100

grams of pollution per cubic meter of water: the amount of pollution increases with
time during the rainstorm. The water mixes evenly, and the rate of outflow is the same
as the rate of inflow. If there is no pollution in the lake at the beginning, describe the
amount of pollution as a function of time t.

In this problem, the rate of flow of pollutants is increasing. This may be because, for
instance, more and more mud is carried as water flows into the lake. At large scales
of time, say t > 7, 000, the amount of pollution per cubic meter of water will be more
than 490kg. If the cubic meter of water itself weighs 1000kg, this does not seem to
make sense or at least distorts the problem. So we will be limited to shorter time
scales and we presume that the rainstorm lasts less than two hours. We draw the
diagrams showing the flow of water and the flow of pollution:

First plot for 8

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The amount of water in the pond is constant. The inflow and outflow are both 7 cubic
meters per second.

Second plot for 8

It takes some more careful work to find the amount of pollutants that are inflowing
and outflowing. The quantity of pollutants at time t is x(t). The pollutants flow in at a
t2 g 3
rate of 100 m3
. There are 7m3 of inflow per second; that is, the inflow is 7 ms Then, the
amount of grams of pollution that enter each second is
t2 g m3 7t2 g
· 7 =
100 m3 s 100 s
The amount of pollutants that leave each second is related to the amount of water
7 7
that leaves. Every second, 250
of the volume of the lake drains out. Then, 250
of the
pollutants drain per second, and the outflow of pollutants is
7x(t) g
250 s

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 35
Although these measurements are in terms of seconds, because they are rates they
apply to any small quantity of time.

We have that
dx
= xin − xout
dt
The change in the volume of pollutants is the amount of pollutants that enter minus
the amount of pollutants that leave. Then, we have

dx 7t2 7x
= −
dt 100 250

All sides have units in grams per second. This is a differential equation that we can
solve for x in terms of t. It is not a separable equation, but it is a nonhomogeneous
linear differential equation. The standard form is

dx 7x 7t2
+ =
dt 250 100

The related homogeneous equation is

dx 7x
+ =0
dt 250

The solution to the related homogeneous equation is

7t
x(t) = Ce− 250

so we posit a solution to the nonhomogeneous equation in the form

7t
x(t) = k(t)e− 250

Then, we have

dx 7x 7t 7 7t 7 7t 7t
+ = k 0 (t)e− 250 − k(t)e− 250 + k(t)e− 250 = k 0 (t)e− 250
dt 250 250 250
7t2
which we set equal to 100
to get

7t2 7t
k 0 (t) = e 250
100

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 36
and
Z
7 7t
k(t) = t2 e 250 dt
100
By parts, this integral is
Z Z
2 7t 250 2 7t 250 7t
te 250 dt = t e 250 − 2te 250 dt
7 7

The next integral is

500 · 250 7t
Z Z
7t 500 7t 500 7t 500 7t
2te dt =
250 te −
250 e 250 = te 250 − e 250
7 7 7 49

up to a constant, and then

 
500 · 250 7t
Z
7t
2 250 250 2 7t 250 500 7t
t e dt = t e 250 − te 250 − e 250
7 7 7 49
250 2 7t 250 · 500 7t 500 · 2502 7t
= t e 250 − te 250 + e 250 + C
7 49 343
7t
Multiplying by 7
100
we get k(t), and multiplying by the homogeneous solution e− 250 we
get

250 2 250 · 500 · 7 500 · 2502 · 7 7t 5t2 1250 5 · 2502 7t

x(t) = t − t+ + Ce− 250 = − t+ + Ce− 250
100 49 · 100 343 · 100 2 7 49

We evaluate
5 · 2502 5 · 62500 312500
= =
49 49 49
so the general solution is

5t2 1250 312500 7t

x(t) = − t+ + Ce− 250
2 7 49

We have
x(0) = 0

so
312500
C=−
49
and the specific solution is

5t2 2500 312500 312500 − 7t

Answer: x(t) = − t+ − e 250
2 7 49 49

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 37
 5t2
For large t, the dominant term is 2
. Obviously the amount of pollutants cannot
increase infinitely if the lake’s volume remains constant, but we know that this mea-
surement only holds valid up to a certain time. At time t = 7000, there are 122500kg of
pollution in the lake according to the dominant term, compared to 250000kg of water
in the lake, which begins to stretch plausibility. This is then roughly the same limit to
the analysis in this problem that we previously computed.

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 38
9. The human bloodstream has volume V , of which b proportion (grams per volume) is
iron. Every day, the intake of iron into the bloodstream is n grams. Every day, also,
f proportion of the bloodstream is flushed and its iron is lost. How must n relate to
b, f, V for the body to be in equilibrium? If the person suddenly loses 10 percent of
their blood due to donating blood, how long does it take them to regain ninety percent
of the iron that was lost?

For there to be equilibrium, we need to have the loss of iron equal to the gain of iron.
The loss of iron can be computed as follows. The total amount of blood is

V vol

The total amount of blood lost is

vol
Vf
day
iron
The units of b are vol
so the total amount of iron lost per day is

V fb

which has units

vol g iron g iron
· =
day vol day
The amount of iron intake per day is n iron
day
where iron is measured in grams so we
need to have
V ·f ·b=n

This is the equilibrium, if the intake of iron is equal to the loss of iron.

Suppose that 10% of the blood is lost in blood donation, so the volume is now 0.9V .
Then, the amount of iron will also decrease by ten percent. The loss of iron per day
will now be
0.9V · f · b

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 39
If n = V · f · b, then the amount of iron gained will be more than the amount of iron
lost, until the iron builds up to equilibrium. We can find how long it takes for the iron
to build back to equilibrium.

Let the amount of iron in the bloodstream be x(t), measured in grams. The amount
of iron lost per day is
x(t) · f

and the amount of iron gained per day is n. Then, we have the differential equation:

dx
= n − f x(t)
dt

This is a separable differential equation for x, made possible since n and f are con-
stants. We have that
dx
= dt
n − fx
Integrating, then,
Z Z
dx
= dt = t + C
n − fx
We want to make the denominator look like n − nu. We want f x = nu so we let

f
u= x
n

Then,
du f
=
dx n
and
n
dx = du
f
The left-hand side is then
Z Z Z Z
dx 1 n 1 n 1 1
= n · du = · du = du
n − fx n−f · fu f n − nu f f 1−u

This integral is
Z
1
du = − ln |1 − u|
1−u

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 40
as we could verify by making a w-substitution of w = 1 − u. Then, we have that
Z  
dx 1  f 
= − ln 1 − x
n − fx f n

which we set equal to t + C:

 
1  f 
− ln 1 − x = t + C
f n

so
 
 f 
ln 1 − x = −f t + C
n
and
 
1 − f x = Ce−f t
 
 n 
As usual we can drop the absolute values; then

f
− x = −1 + Ce−f t
n

and
n
x(t) = + Ce−f t
f
This is the general solution to the level of iron in the blood.

In the case of equilibrium, what is the initial condition? We have that the number of
grams of iron per unit of blood is
x
b=
V
If n = V · f · b this becomes
n=f ·x

If we have
n
x(0) =
f
then we see that C = 0 and the amount of iron in the blood is always the iron intake
divided by the flush rate.

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 41
What is the initial condition after ten percent of the blood is donated? Then, we have
that the iron count is ten percent below the usual level, so

n
x(0) = 0.9
f

Then,
n n
0.9 = + Ce−f ·0
f f
which means that
n
−0.1 =C
f
and
n
C=−
10f
Then, the specific solution for the level of iron is

n n −f t
x(t) = − e
f 10f

How long does it take for the amount of iron to regain ninety percent of the iron loss?
This occurs when the iron level is at 99 percent of the original, since ninety percent of
the ten percent lost is nine percent. We want to find when

n n n −f t
0.99 = − e
f f 10f

This is when
1 n n −f t
− =− e
100 f 10f
or
1
= e−f t
10
or when
1
−f t = ln = − ln 10
10
so when
1
Answer: t = ln 10
f

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 42
 1
If f is, say, 100
which corresponds to a recycle rate of 1% per day, then

t = 100 ln 10 ≈ 230

In this model, it takes the better part of a year to replenish all of the lost iron.

Interestingly, V and b are not part of any solution, only n and f . The reason for this
is that the problems is really only about iron, and the other parts of blood are not
relevant. If we parse the problem, we see that the iron loss is f x(t) and the iron gain
is n. The only relevance of V and b is in determining the equilibrium state.

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 43
10. Although usually thought of directly in terms of exponentials, we can imagine ra-
dioactive decay as a mixture problem - a mixture of isotopes. Let there be a sample
of 5000g of uranium, mixed as 99% of uranium-238 and 1% of uranium-234. Assume
a constant rate of decay of the uranium-238, where after each second the proportion
of uranium-238 that remains is α1 and the rest decays into uranium-234. Likewise,
assume a constant rate of decay of uranium-234, where after each second the pro-
portion of uranium-234 that remains is α2 and the rest decays into other matter. How
long does it take for the amount of uranium-234 to become half of its initial quantity?
Hint: you can assume that the amount of U-238 remains constant, since its decrease
will be so small over the time frame of this experiment.

We can model isotopic decay as a mixtures problem. The amount of U-234 at any
time we can call
u(t)

and we have
u(0) = 50g

which is one percent of the original sample. We have

du
= u+ − u−
dt
The change in the amount of uranium-234 is the increase minus the decrease. The
increase in uranium-234 per second is

u+ = 4950 (1 − α1 )

because of the 4950 grams of uranium-238, roughly1 1 − α1 proportion of them decay

per second. The units of α1 are 1s , so 4950 (1 − α1 ) is measured in grams per second.
The decrease in uranium-234 per second is related to the amount of it present:

u− = u(t) (1 − α2 )
1A continuous-time answer might require the use of exponentials, but this is a useful approximation. We also can approximate that,

over the timescales of this problem, the 4950 grams of uranium-238 does not decay appreciably.

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 44
because α2 is the proportion that remains so 1 − α2 is the portion that decays and
vanishes. Then, we have

du
= 4950 (1 − α1 ) − u(t) (1 − α2 )
dt

For simplicity, we name

1 − α 1 = β1 , 1 − α 2 = β2

This is a separable differential equation and so we have

du
= dt
4950β1 − uβ2

and
Z Z
du
= dt = t + C
4950β1 − uβ2
We let
w = 4950β1 − uβ2

so
dw
= −β2
du
and
1
du = − dw
β2
and then the left-hand integral is
Z
1 1 1
− dw = − ln |w|
β2 w β2

which is equal to t + C, so

ln |w| = ln |4950β1 − uβ2 | = −β2 t + C

and
4950β1 − uβ2 = Ce−β2 t

so
β1
u = 4950 + Ce−β2 t
β2

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 45
We have that
u(0) = 50

because there are fifty grams of U-234 at the beginning, so

β1
50 = 4950 +C
β2
and
β1
C = 50 − 4950
β2
so
 
β1 β1 −β2 t
u(t) = 4950 + 50 − 4950 e
β2 β2
This is the amount of uranium-234 at any time. We see that the steady-state solution
is 4950 ββ21 .

What are the values of β1 and β2 ? We defined β1 as the proportion of uranium-238

that decays in one second. Since the half-life of uranium-238 is 1.4 · 1017 seconds,
t ln 2
the amount of uranium-238 decays according to 4950e− 1.4·1017 , so the proportion that
remains after one second, labeled α1 , is
ln 2
e− 1.4·1017

and
ln 2
β1 = 1 − e− 1.4·1017

Since the half-life of uranium-234 is 7.7 · 1012 seconds, the amount of uranium-234
(starting from the initial amount) decays according to
t ln 2
50e− 7.7·1012

so
ln 2
α2 = e− 7.7·1012

and
ln 2
β2 = 1 − e− 7.7·1012

c 2019 MathTutorDVD.com 46
Plugging in the values for β1 , β2 we have
β1
4950 = 4950 · 0.000055
β2
Per 4950 grams of Uranium-238, then, there are 4950 · 0.000055 grams of U-234, and
per gram of U-238, there are 0.000055 grams of U-234. This matches the relative
abundance of U-234 versus the abundance of U-238 that occurs in nature, proving
the validity of our technique.

In this problem, we start with an amount of U-234 that is elevated beyond this natural
level for whatever reason. We want to find how long it takes for the amount of uranium
to reduce to half its initial level; that is, to 25g. That is, we want to solve when
 
β1 β1 −β2 t
25 = 4950 + 50 − 4950 e
β2 β2
This happens when
−β2 t
25 − 4950 ββ12
e =
50 − 4950 ββ21
or when
25 − 4950 ββ12
!
1
Answer: t = − ln
β2 50 − 4950 ββ12
β1
for β1 = 1 − α1 , β2 = 1 − α2 . We can note that, since β2
is very small, this is approxi-
mately
1 1 ln 2
t≈− ln = = 7.7 · 1012 s
β2 2 β2
which is the half-life of U-234. Since the rate of creation of U-234 (very slow) is far
outstripped by the rate of decay of the U-234 that already exists, we can approxi-
mately model the decay rate of U-234 in this problem as just the decay of the original
sample. Plugging in the values of β1 , β2 , we have

Answer: t = 7.76 · 1012 s

which is only slightly different from the approximation.

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