Hi, so i'm currently doing a psmt on leslie matrices for specialist maths. The task is to model the population of an animal. So far all i've done is predict the population after a given number of years using a leslie matrix. The teacher told our class that to get higher marks, we need to do more than just the leslie matrices in the maths. I have no idea what else i can do though? Possibly eigenvalues but i don't know how that would relate?

    i still have no idea what to do?! someone in specialist please help or just anyone

    Hey picturemeinthetrees,

    I graduated from the QCE system in 2021 and I have tutored multiple students for specialist maths.

    Your teacher wants you to essentially create the first model with Leslie matrices and then identify what assumptions you made. Because making many assumptions are not the best, they want you to create a new model by rectifying some of the assumptions you made for the first model. The second model (the "refined" model) should, theoretically, have better prediction values and also incorporate 1 or 2 or 3 of the assumptions that you would have made in the first model.

    The second model could be anything but better to relate it to vectors or matrices so do some research online and some mathematical procedures should come up. You could use eigenvalues but just to help you, one of the more common methods is using Lefkovitch matrices - there should be research and sources on that to help you get your head around it. That should be sufficient for your second (or refined) model.

    Hope that helps.

    • PP

      Also I forgot to mention, but for the assignment, we need to find ways to reduce the population. I've done this with the leslie matrices but can I also do it for Lefkovitch matrices?

        picturemeinthetrees

        Oh I haven't heard that as a task to do in the assignment. I imagine you could do it with Lefkovitch matrices but don't quote me. Specifically, my assignment was on predicting future sports match results based on past matches for betting so I didn't employ Lefkovitch matrices at all. That's probably a good question for any sources you find. Sorry I can't help you more than that on it.

        • PP
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