Population growth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Population growth - Essay Example Geometric growth can be contrasted to arithmetic growth rate, which grows in a sequence, for instance 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, .... One of the principles behind geometric growth is that the bigger a number gets, the faster it grows, this is the case with population since the larger the population becomes, more people will be available for reproduction hence the greater growth (Berlatsky, 133). For instance, a population having 500,000 people will grow five times faster than a population which has just 100, 000. From this equation, if r is greater than zero and b is greater than one, then the population will grow at exponentially, however, if r is less than zero and b is greater than one or if r is greater than one and b is between one and zero, then the population will reduce exponentially. A geometric decay curve for population would look something like this Geometric continuous time model of population growth is more realistic when it comes to determining population growth since they involve all parameters of population such as birth rates and death rate (Turchin, p96) In order to calculate the population growth rate using the continuous growth model, the following formula can be derived. If a population has Nt individuals where t is time in years, the number of children being born in a year is a fraction represented by the symbol ï  ¢ and the number of people that die in a year is a fraction that is represented by the symbol ï  §. These geometric progression equations have been used for a long time to calculate population growth rates of countries or of the world at large, for instance, the following figure show a curve of world growth rate that was calculated from the available data and backward projections of population. Geometric progression has been use in population growth and without it, calculating