Elementary Mathematical Modeling: A Dynamic Approach

ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICAL MODELING uses mathematics to study problems arising in areas such as Genetics, Finance, Medicine, and Economics. Throughout the course of the book, students learn how to model a real situation, such as testing levels of lead in children or environmental cleanup. They then learn how to analyze that model in relationship to the real world, such as making recommendations for minimum treatment time for children exposed to lead paint or determining the minimum time required to adequately clean up a polluted lake. Often the results will be counterintuitive, such as finding that an increase in the rate of wild-life harvesting may actually decrease the long-term harvest, or that a lottery prize that is paid out over a number of years is worth far less than its advertised value. This use of mathematics illustrates and models real-world issues and questions, bringing the value of mathematics to life for students, enabling them to see, perhaps for the first time, the utility of mathematics.