Discrete dynamics

Most of our work will involve calculus, and although we’ll learn new techniques and applications, the calculus approach to modeling already is familiar. This first chapter is different: it’s about discrete models. We’ll see examples of two biological processes: a model of populations with non-overlapping generations in an environment with limited resources, and some simple models of heartbeats. We start with discrete models because they are less familiar. One of our goals is to give you some hint of the pleasure of finding connections between biology and math. If the math already is well known, the connections appear one-directional, but