Practice IB Mathematics Applications & Interpretation (AI) Topic AHL 5.17—phase Portrait with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for AHL 5.17—phase Portrait and mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 style where relevant.
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A model for the spread of a rumor involves susceptible () and informed () individuals:
where and are in thousands and is in days.
Show that the system has a line of equilibrium points on the -axis (i.e. ).
For the equilibrium point , find the Jacobian matrix and its eigenvalues, and classify the stability.
Given initial conditions , use Euler's method with a step size of days to estimate the populations after days.
Sketch the phase portrait on , . Show the equilibrium line(s) and at least three trajectories with direction arrows.
A model for the populations of two symbiotic algae species, and (in thousands per ), is given by:
Time is measured in arbitrary time units.
Find the equilibrium point.
Use the substitution to transform the system into a homogeneous system, and find its eigenvalues.
Find the general solution of the original system, given the eigenvalues and eigenvectors from Part 1.
Given initial conditions , find the particular solution and determine the limit of as .
Sketch the phase portrait for , showing the equilibrium point and trajectories.
The displacement of a damped spring-mounted platform, (in ), is modeled by
where is in seconds.
Convert the equation to a system of first-order differential equations using , and find the equilibrium point.
Find the eigenvalues of the homogeneous system's matrix.
Find the exact solution for , given .
Sketch the graph of against for , labeling the equilibrium level.
A predator-prey system models the populations of deer (, in thousands) and wolves (, in hundreds) in a national park, given by:
where is in years. Initially, .
Find the non-zero equilibrium point for the system.
Interpret the equilibrium point in the context of the model.
Use Euler's method with a step size of years to estimate and after years.
On a phase plane with on the horizontal axis and on the vertical axis, for and , sketch the initial direction of the trajectory from .
A biologist is studying the interaction between two species in an ecosystem, where the population dynamics can be modeled by the following system of differential equations. Let and be the population sizes (in individuals) at time days.
Determine the eigenvalues of the system.
Find the corresponding eigenvectors.
Classify the origin and describe the behaviour of solutions near it.
Suggest an interpretation of this system in terms of population dynamics.