•Questions: growth rates

The batch of questions below concern month-to-month growth rates (expressed as decimals) of the two populations.

Question 2.   Suppose there are initially 60 owls and 130 (thousands of) squirrels.  
(a) Determine, over a 10-month time period, what the growth rates are for both populations.  (The rates might be negative as well as positive.)
(b) Based upon your calculated growth rates, make a prediction as to what these growth rates will be after the initial 10-month period.
(c) Confirm or refute your prediction by actually calculating the growth rates over a 20-month period.    

Question 3.   Suppose now there are initially 200 owls and 100 (thousands of) squirrels.  
(a) Determine, over a 10-month time period, what the growth rates are for both populations.  (The rates might be negative as well as positive.)
(b) Based upon your calculated growth rates, make a prediction as to what these growth rates will be after the initial 10-month period.
(c) Confirm or refute your prediction by actually calculating the growth rates over a 20-month period.    

Question 4.   Suppose next there are initially 100 owls and 175 (thousands of) squirrels.  
(a) Determine, over a 10-month time period, what the growth rates are for both populations.  (The rates might be negative as well as positive.)
(b) Based upon your calculated growth rates, make a prediction as to what will happen to over many months.
(c) Confirm or refute your prediction by actually calculating the growth rates over a 20-month period.    

Question 5.   Repeat Question 3 but for 100 owls and 50 (thousands of) squirrels initially instead of 200 owls and 100 (thousands of) squirrels.  Make any relevant comment about the relationship between your answer to this question and your answer to Question 3.

Question 6.   Repeat Question 3 again but for 80 owls and 40 (thousands of) squirrels initially instead of 200 owls and 100 (thousands of) squirrels.  Make any relevant comment about the relationship between your answer to this question and your answers to Question 3 and 5.

Question 7.   Repeat Question 4 but for some new initial numbers of owls and squirrels.

Why do these growth rates do what they seem to do? In other words, how can you account for what you found?  You are going to find out soon.

 Converted by Mathematica  (September 5, 2002)