Spread of H1N1 (swine) flu and mathematics
I came across an interesting blog post by Murray Borne titled H1N1 and the Logistic Equation. It explains how a logistic function can be used to model the spread of a virus or a disease in a given population.
Now, maybe you don't know what is logistic function or equation. It is shown in the blogpost; it uses the exponential function as a part of it. Basically, it is like an exponential growth function but it is limited after a certain point so that the growth tapers off, and approaches a certain (upper) limit.
Murray shows the graph, and then shows a real-life example about the spread of swine flu in Mexico last spring. It's a great, yet fairly simple, example of how mathematics is used for modeling real-life situations.
You could definitely use it as such an example with your students, even if you don't understand a THING about logistic equations. You see, seeing how math is used is definitely inspiring and motivating to a lot of students - especially when it ties in with some current "hot topic" such as the H1N1 flu.
Now, maybe you don't know what is logistic function or equation. It is shown in the blogpost; it uses the exponential function as a part of it. Basically, it is like an exponential growth function but it is limited after a certain point so that the growth tapers off, and approaches a certain (upper) limit.
Murray shows the graph, and then shows a real-life example about the spread of swine flu in Mexico last spring. It's a great, yet fairly simple, example of how mathematics is used for modeling real-life situations.
You could definitely use it as such an example with your students, even if you don't understand a THING about logistic equations. You see, seeing how math is used is definitely inspiring and motivating to a lot of students - especially when it ties in with some current "hot topic" such as the H1N1 flu.
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