Abstract

Citation

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Monagan, M. (2023). 2014-Michael_Monagan-The Mortgage Payment Problem Approximating a Discrete Process with a Differential Equation. SIMIODE, QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/BB64-6X46

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Article Context

Description

Monagan, Michael. 2014.  The House Warming Model. Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University

See http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/~mmonagan/papers/HouseReporter.pdf . Accessed 29 March 2029.

Maple commands: s o l v e , c o l l e c t , d s o l v e , o d e p l o t , D E p l o t

Introduction: In the Fall of 2012 and 2013 I taught MACM 204 Computing and Calculus to second and third year students. The course is intended to introduce our mathematics majors at SFU to a general purpose mathematical software package. We use Maple. Students taking the course also include students from economics, the sciences and engineering. They have taken first year differential and integral calculus and a first programming course. One of the main topics in the course is modeling with differential equations. Unlike physics, chemistry, biology and engineering students, mathematics, statistics and computing science students rarely study physical systems. So, in this course we try not only to teach students how to use Maple to solve a variety of problems, but also how to model physical systems with DEs. In this article and a subsequent article I will give two non-standard examples that I've found helpful. The one presented here is a first order linear system. Second order systems and non-linear systems are too complicated to study analytically in a first course. I also like this example because it's flexible. And, at least for now, students won't find the solutions to it online! They'll find a very different kind of house warming!!

Keywords: Maple, heating, house, compartment, equilibrium