World Population
The human population of the earth is large and is increasingly rapidly.
According to the 1991 Rand McNally World Atlas, the
population in 1900 was approximately 1.6 billion. This increased to around 2.5
billion in 1950, and more than doubled over the next 40 years to exceed 5.2
billion in 1990.
Are there already too many people in the world, or can the earth comfortably
absorb even larger numbers of humans? This is a crucial question that can be
addressed from a governmental, scientific, or religious perspective. Not
surprisingly, as is the case for most complex issues, there is considerable
disagreement.
Partisans on one side or the other of complex public policy issues often employ
metaphors in an attempt to reduce the issue into terms to which the average
citizen can relate. For example, President Reagan once characterized the size
of the U.S. federal budget, on national television, by giving the height of a
stack of dollar bills equal in value to the budget.
A common tactic when discussing the question of global population is to
calculate how much space each person would have if, say, New Mexico were evenly
divided up among all the people on earth. In this lesson, we will calculate
how many square feet each person would have if the earth's entire surface were
divided up this way.
Ultimately, this is a rather simple calculation: we simply divide the surface
area of the earth by its total population. Nevertheless, we will pursue this
question in detail because:
- It will serve to illustrate the five-step approach to solving
computational problems that we will employ in subsequent lessons.
- Despite appearances, the problem is complex enough to reveal some
fundamental truths about numerical computation.
- It will give you the opportunity to begin using Maple to solve
computational problems.
Joseph L. Zachary
Hamlet Project
Department of Computer Science
University of Utah