So, can we apply this equation to humans?

What do we know? Well we know that since the population is exponentially growing, that &lambda must be greater than 1, for humans.

Note tho, a mathematical oddity - S ≠ λ in this equation because then we will be dividing by zero

Also how should we interpret w? maybe have w be the maximum age for female reproduction?

Download the spreedsheet for this activity and do the following 3 exercises:

  1. Plug in values of the various parameters to see what combination of parameters (e.g. α, w, s,so,s1, b ) to see which combination gives us a value for λ between 1.01 and 1.02, which is approximately the growth rate of the world over the last 100 years.

    So in the spread sheet first set λ to something between 1.01 and 1.02 and then adjust the other parameters until cell M2 (the difference between the LHS and the RHS is close to zero). Note that you should be able to get within less than 0.001 for this difference.

  2. Now let's try and see if its possible, via some combination of parameters, to get λ = 1.005 (very slow exponential growth). (again less than 0.001 diff)

  3. Finally, try to find a solution that produces λ = 0.99. (again less than 0.001 diff) What are the implications of this solution?