Math Modeling of World

Catalog description

This course exposes students to the process of mathematical modeling as a way to describe, explain, understand, or predict situations arising in everyday life. Examples of such situations might include: the design of handicap ramps, estimating the number of sand bags needed to raise a levee a few feet, understanding and predicting the number of daylight hours at different places in the world, analyzing the consequences of child support payment adjustment formulas used by the states, etc. The modeling process emphasizes making assumptions, translating the empirical situation into mathematical language, drawing conclusions from the mathematical solution, interpreting and validating those conclusions in the context of the original situation and revising assumptions if necessary.