THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS

Sample exam

MATH1031
MATHEMATICS FOR LIFE SCIENCES

(1) TIME ALLOWED – Two (2) hours

(2) TOTAL NUMBER OF QUESTIONS – 2

(3) ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS

(4) THE QUESTIONS ARE OF EQUAL VALUE

(5) ANSWER EACH QUESTION IN A SEPARATE BOOK

(6) THIS PAPER MAY BE RETAINED BY THE CANDIDATE

(7) ONLY CALCULATORS WITH AN AFFIXED “UNSW APPROVED” STICKER

MAY BE USED

(8) A SHORT TABLE OF INTEGRALS IS APPENDED TO THIS PAPER

USE ONE BOOKLET FOR ROUGH WORKING ONLY THAT WILL NOT
BE MARKED

All answers must be written in ink. Except where they are expressly required pencils
may only be used for drawing, sketching or graphical work.
Sample exam MATH1031 Page 2

USE A SEPARATE BOOK CLEARLY MARKED QUESTION 1

This question is worth 20 marks in total, 15 marks as indicated
below and 5 marks for presentation.

1. i) [7 marks] Detectives on a homicide case find a body. To determine the

time of death of the victim measurements of the temperature, T in ◦C,
of the body as a function of time, t in hours, since their arrival were
taken. Their measurements were:MATH
t (hours) 0 1 2 3
T (◦ C) 27.1 24.8 23.9 22.6
a) Let R = ln(T − 21) . Using the above data, construct a new table
of t versus R . Calculate your values for R to 2 decimal places.
b) Using your table of R versus t from part (a), find the least squares
line of best fit R = mt + b for your data. Find m and b correct
to 2 decimal places.
You may use the following Maple output in your calculations:

> with(LinearAlgebra):
> Transpose(<<0,1,2,3>|<1,1,1,1>>).<<1.81,1.34,1.06,0.47>>;
" #
4.87000000000000010
4.67999999999999971

c) Use your line of best fit from part (b) to estimate the time when the
body temperature was 37 ◦ C.
d) Remembering that R = ln(T − 21) , use your result in (b) to show
that the relation between T and t can be written as

T = A + Be−Kt ,

where A , B and K are constants. Identify the values of A , B

and K from your line of best fit.
e) If the body had not been found, what does your equation in (d)
predict as the limiting value of T ?

Please see over . . .

Sample exam MATH1031 Page 3

ii) [5 marks] Kenny mixes a fruit salad for a party using apples, bananas
and strawberries. An apple, a banana and a strawberry weigh 120 g,
216 g and 24 g, respectively. He uses 9600 g of fruit and follows a recipe
recommending that the total number of apples and bananas is three times
the number of strawberries. Suppose that the numbers of apples, bananas
and strawberries are x, y and z, respectively.
a) Write down the two equations in x, y and z that correspond to
the above recipe.
b) Solve this system of equations to find all possible solutions.
c) To make the salad look more appetizing, Kenny decides to use as
many strawberries as possible. What is the largest number of straw-
berries he can use while following this recipe?

iii) [3 marks] There are four lily pads A, B, C and D in this order along
a straight line. When a frog is at A , it can only jump to B . When it is
at D , it can only jump to C . While it is at B , the probability that it
1 2
will jump to A is and the probability that it will jump to C is .
3 3
2
While it is at C , the probability that it will jump to B is and the
3
1
probability that it will jump to D is .
3
a) Find the transition matrix T for this Markov process, taking the
order of the states to be A, B, C and D.
b) Given that the frog starts from B , what is the probability it will
return to B after four jumps? You are given that
7 20

27
0 81
0
4
 0 61 0 20 
T = 81 27 
 20 0 61 0  .
27 81
0 2081
7
0 27

Please see over . . .

Sample exam MATH1031 Page 4

USE A SEPARATE BOOK CLEARLY MARKED QUESTION 2

This question is worth 20 marks in total, 15 marks as indicated
below and 5 marks for presentation.

2. i) [4 marks] In May 2016, a three-year-old boy fell into an enclosure at

the Cincinnati Zoo and was grabbed by Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla.
Fearing for the boy’s life, a zoo worker shot and killed Harambe. Six
months later in the 2016 United States federal election, the deceased
gorilla received 11000 “write-in” votes for president.
Assume that the number N of votes (measured in units of one thousand)
intended for Harambe is modelled by the first order linear differential
equation  
dN 1 2t
+ N=
dt 1+t 1+t
where t is time in months after the shooting. By solving the differential
equation and applying an appropriate initial condition, determine the
number of votes Harambe would have received if the election were held
two months after the shooting at time t = 2 .

ii) [3 marks] Over a fixed time interval the volume V (litres) of blood
passing through an artery of radius r (mm) is governed by Poiseuille’s
Law
V = kr4
where k is a constant. Suppose that an artery of radius 5mm is expand-
dr
ing at a rate = 2 mm/sec. Find the rate of change of the volume V
dt
in terms of k .

iii) [5 marks] Suppose that the Kokiri forest currently has 0 male love-birds
and 1000 female love-birds, and that the subsequent number x and y
of male and female love-birds (respectively) at time t (years from now)
is governed by the system of differential equations

dx
= 5x + 12y 

dt


x, y, t ≥ 0.
dy 

= −x − 3y  
dt
a) By considering these differential equations explain why the female
love-bird population will decrease.
b) Solve the system of differential equation and apply the initial condi-
tions to find explicit formulae for x and y at time t .
c) When (to the nearest day) will there be one male love-bird for each
female love-bird?

Please see over . . .

Sample exam MATH1031 Page 5

iv) [3 marks] A twice differentiable function y = f (x) has the property

that its graph meets the x axis with a horizontal tangent at x = a and
x = b . Prove that the average of x2 f 00 (x) over [a, b] is twice the average
of f (x) over [a, b] .

Please see over . . .

Sample exam MATH1031 Page 6

BASIC INTEGRALS
Z
1
dx = ln |x| + C = ln |kx|, C = ln k
Z x
1
eax dx = eax + C
Z a
x 1 x
a dx = a + C, a 6= 1
Z ln a
1
sin ax dx = − cos ax + C
Z a
1
cos ax dx = sin ax + C
Z a
1
sec2 ax dx = tan ax + C
Z a
1
cosec2 ax dx = − cot ax + C
Z a
1
tan ax dx = ln | sec ax| + C
Z a
1
cot ax dx = ln | sin ax| + C
Z a
1
sec ax dx = ln | sec ax + tan ax| + C
Z a
1
sinh ax dx = cosh ax + C
Z a
1
cosh ax dx = sinh ax + C
Z a
1
sech2 ax dx = tanh ax + C
Z a
1
cosech2 ax dx = − coth ax + C
Z a
dx 1 x
2 2
= tan−1 + C
Z a +x a a
dx 1 x
2 2
= tanh−1 + C, |x| < a
a −x a a
1 x
= coth−1 + C, |x| > a > 0
a  a 
1 a + x
= ln   + C, x2 6= a2
Z 2a a−x 
dx −1 x
√ = sin +C
Z a2 − x 2 a
dx x
√ = sinh−1 + C
Z
2
x +a 2 a
dx x
√ = cosh−1 + C, x>a>0
2
x −a 2 a