Points to Ponder

The following five questions should be answered for each system considered in this worksheet.

1. What is the long term behavior of the system?

2. In the case of oscillations, what is the period (time interval from peak to peak or trough to trough), and what is the amplitude?

3. How does changing the initial conditions affect your answers to qustions 1 and 2?

4. Does the system have any steady states (equilibria)? Do these appear to be stable or unstable?

5. If there are steady states, are they in any way related to the long term behavior?

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