Some Applications of Modeling in Mathematics for Two-Year Colleges

Abstract

Those of us who learned our mathematics in a traditional way have been concerned primarily with models in applying calculus. In this paper, some problems will be considered using only rather elementary mathematics. The examples will range from very easy problems with solutions to more complex problems which don't really have fixed solutions. None of them need calculus, although the first problem could be solved using calculus. The main reason for avoiding calculus is that most community college students don't take calculus. The question these problems are aimed at answering is, Is it possible to teach some non-calculus modeling at the community college level? The answer is Yes, but it involves a lot of work, including possibly some new course development along the lines of finite mathematics. Some of the mathematics needed for elementary modeling includes counting, probability, linear programming, statistics, and some linear algebra including matrices, graphs and graph theory.