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high school calculus class that is not AP Calculus BC, the derivation of the system provides an exam ple of modeling using the rates of change of un known variables. Even without solving the system, the First Derivative Test may be applied to know when the infectious proportion may be at its maxi mum and to derive an important formula reported in general media for the threshold of herd immuni ty, which provides a target for the proportion of the population that must be vaccinated for the epidem ic to start to decline. Furthermore, nondimensional izing the system to reduce it to a single parameter provides an interesting example of the Chain Rule in action and lets us give a more precise mathemat ical context for the definition of the important re production number R 0 . Abou - Ismail, A. (2020). Compartmental models of the COVID - 19 pandemic for physicians and physician - scientists. SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine , 2, 852 - 858. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s42399 - 020 - 00330 - z Bertozzi, A. L., Franco, E., Mohler, G., Short, M., & Sledge, D. (2020). The challenges of modeling and forecasting the spread of COVID - 19. PNAS , 117 (29), 16732 - 16738. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006520117 CDC (2021). COVID - 19 pandemic planning sce narios. https://www.cdc.gov/ References

coronavirus/2019 - ncov/hcp/planning scenarios.html Doucleff, M. (2014, October 2). No, seriously, how contagious is ebola? Shots: Health News from NPR. www.npr.org/sections/health shots/2014/10/02/352983774/no - seriously how - contagious - is - ebola. Hethcote, H. (2000). The mathematics of infectious diseases. SIAM Review, 42 , 599 - 652. Kritz, F. (2020, February 16). Fact - checking ‘ contagion ’ —in wake of coronavirus, the 2011 movie is trending. Goats and Soda : Stories of Life in a Changing World from NPR. www.npr.org/sections/ goatsandsoda/2020/02/16/802704825/fact checking - contagion - in - wake - of - coronavirus - the - 2011 - movie - is - trending. Soderbergh, S. (Director). (2011). Contagion [Film], Warner Bros. Pictures.

Dr. Eric P. Choate Assistant Professor Radford University echoate2@RADFORD.EDU

Math Jokes

1. Why didn ’ t the quarter roll down the road with the nickel? Because it had more cents!

2. Why did the student get upset then the teacher called her average? Because it was a mean thing to say!

3. What is the math teacher ’ s favorite sum? Summer!

4. A students said to his math teacher, “ To show you how good I am at fractions, I only did half of my homework! ”

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 47, no. 1

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