on the island of orpsengia, the human birth and death rates per capita are constant; and the population of the island has been doubling every 20 years. however, one day several pirate ships arrive. all of the island women under the age of 50, tired of being ordered about by their mohters-in-law and ignored by their husbands, decide to elope with the glamorous pirates, taking their children with them. after that, the remaining population of orpsengia declines by half over the next ten years. what was the original birth rate per capita on orpsengia? you will have to make several assumptions to solve this problem; that is ok as long as you list your assumptions carefully!
solution
(insert malthusian equation and enough mathematical stuff to make you law people feel faint i.e. more than one mathematical term)
assumptions:
1. men and old women have the same death rate as young women, which is not true in reality because men smoke, get into fights etc while on the other hand old women are indestructible;
2. the death rate of the remaining population is not change by the departure of the girls, a very questionable assumption since morale will be affected etc.
nice to see that if the student doesn't enjoy solving her math question at least her profs are having fun. there are couple of questions in my latest tutorial that are equally funny. how i long for the days when they just told you to integrate the bloody equation with the second theorem of calculus or something. but i am happy to overlook the slight detail of me not being able to solve these questions because it's funny just to read them. it would be funnier if i could solve them, that is if i had the sense of humour of marquis de sade.
our day will come.
Post a Comment