A social media rumor is spreading through a university campus of 2500 students. Initially, 50 students have heard the rumor. The number of students who have heard the rumor is observed to increase by 40% each hour.
The total number of students who have heard the rumor, xxx, is modelled by
x=A×Bt x = A \times B^t x=A×Btwhere A A\,A and B B\,B are constants and t t\,t is the number of hours after the rumor first started.
(i) Based on this model, calculate the number of students who have heard the rumor 5 hours after it started.
(ii) Explain why this model is not appropriate for predicting the spread of the rumor over a long period of time.
A more sophisticated model assumes that the rate at which the rumor spreads is given by the differential equation
dxdt=x(2500−x)5000 \frac{dx}{dt} = \frac{x(2500 - x)}{5000} dtdx=5000x(2500−x)(i) Show that
∫(Cx+D2500−x)dx=∫dt \int \left( \frac{C}{x} + \frac{D}{2500 - x} \right) dx = \int dt ∫(xC+2500−xD)dx=∫dtwhere C C\,C and D D\,D are positive integers to be found.
(ii) Hence, find t t\,t in terms of xxx.
(iii) Calculate the number of hours it takes for half of the student population to have heard the rumor.
825 exam-style questions on OCR (MEI) A Level Maths 1.9 Calculus, covering 1.9.1 Gradient of a curve at a point, 1.9.2 Gradient as limit of chord gradient, 1.9.3 Derivative as gradient of tangent, 1.9.4 Sketch the gradient function, 1.9.5 Differentiate y = kx^n, 1.9.6 Second derivative as rate of change of gradient, 1.9.7 Stationary points: maxima and minima, 1.9.8 Increasing and decreasing functions, 1.9.9 Tangent and normal at a point, 1.9.10 Differentiate e^kx, a^kx and ln x (A-level only), 1.9.11 Differentiate trigonometric functions (A-level only), 1.9.12 Product rule (A-level only), 1.9.13 Quotient rule (A-level only), 1.9.14 Chain rule (A-level only), 1.9.15 Rates of change with the chain rule (A-level only), 1.9.16 Implicit differentiation (A-level only), 1.9.17 Concavity and the second derivative (A-level only), 1.9.18 Points of inflection (A-level only), 1.9.19 Integration as reverse of differentiation, 1.9.20 Integrate kx^n, 1.9.21 Constant of integration, 1.9.22 Indefinite and definite integrals, 1.9.23 Area between a graph and the x-axis, 1.9.24 Integrate e^kx, 1/x, sin kx, cos kx (A-level only), 1.9.25 Integration as the limit of a sum (A-level only), 1.9.26 Area between two curves (A-level only), 1.9.27 Integration by substitution (reverse chain rule) (A-level only), 1.9.28 Integration by substitution (other cases) (A-level only), 1.9.29 Integration by parts (A-level only), 1.9.30 Integration using partial fractions (A-level only), 1.9.31 Formulate first order differential equations (A-level only), 1.9.32 Solve first order differential equations (A-level only), and 1.9.33 Interpret solutions of differential equations (A-level only). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.