From: John W Burgeson (jwburgeson@juno.com)
Date: Wed Nov 12 2003 - 11:03:18 EST
Glenn wrote, in part: "The big problem is the population. The world
simply can't continue to support more and more of us, but I doubt that
sex and babies are going to go out of style anytime soon."
Glen also cited the reindeer example, which is a good one.
On my website I have a spreadsheet which illustrates mathematically the
problem. The math is described on page 35 of REASON AND REALITY by John
Polkinghorne (1991) and describes how species population sizes vary in
successive years. Next year’s population (X[n+1]} depends on:
(1) how many of the species there are to breed this year (X[n])
(2) on the attenuating effect of limited resources this year (1-X[n]).
You can see this at the page www.burgy.50megs.com/chaos.htm
JB
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