Exam 1 --- 100 points Spring 2000
1. Mathematical modeling of population growth can be performed through the basic equation
N = No e(rt) [ "e(rt) " can also be written as "exp(rt)"]
a. (4) What do each of the terms in the equation mean?
N ___________________________ r ________________________________
No ___________________________ t ________________________________
b. (6) Which of the terms: r, t, or No, is the most uncertain? What factors control value(s) of this uncertain term?
c. (10) Say that "r" for a certain native village on the island
of Borneo is -19%. Assume this rate stays constant. If the present
population of the village is 1,250, how long will it take before the village
is essentially gone (i.e., the population is 50)? (Show your work)
2a. (12) How has geology influenced the growth of urban and suburban Seattle?
b. (8) What is the King County (Seattle Washington) "Sensitive Areas
Ordinance?" What is your opinion of the ordinance? Do you think the ordinance
is a good idea? Why? Do you think your opinion would change if you were
a landowner and developer in the Seattle area?
c. (5) Although the Seattle area does not experience as much seismic
activity as southern California, the threat of a massive earthquake every
several hundred years may exist. What specific kinds of evidence support
this statement?
3. . (15 pts.) An abandoned toxic waste dump is located in an old sand pit in an area where the topographic surface slopes at about 6o eastward from the Front Range of Colorado. Runoff that percolates down into the sand has contaminated groundwater toward the east.
The sand pit is in a sandstone bed which has a true thickness of approximately 22 feet and has a strike that runs north and south, and has a dip of 12o east. If you needed to install a monitoring well in the sandstone at a point 2500 feet due east of the dump, estimate the minimum depth you would have to drill to just reach the sandstone.
Cross-section (view is looking north) (figure
missing)
b. well depth =________________________ feet (cosine of 12 o = 0.978
(please show you work) sine of 12 o = 0.208
tangent of 12o = 0.213)
(cosine of 6o = 0.995
sine of 6 o = 0.105
tangent of 6o = 0.105)
4a. (5) Thomas Malthus is most famous for his essay titled
___________________________________________________________________
c. (5) By profession, Malthus was a _______________________________________
d. (5) According to Charles Mann, was Malthus a Pollyanna or a Cassandra?
________________________________
5a. (5) What is GIS?
b. (5) Explain the difference between raster and vector data
c. (5) Define overlay analysis
d. (5) With respect to raster data, explain the difference between
a point operation and a neighborhood operation.
6. (5) Place an "x" in section 22 in the township map below.