Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Solver for the SIR Model of the Spread of Disease


Here's a link if anyone is interested in more of the SIR model. It's the exact same model we talk about in class. You can plug in any number you want and see for yourself how fast a disease can spread. Here's the link

1 comment:

John Latto said...

That's cool, thanks. As well as getting a feel for the model you can use this simulation to demonstrate the slightly counterintutive result that, in terms of the community, it is better if people with diseases die quickly. This is because it moves them out of the Infected category faster. Try the same simulation with different values for gamma. I didn't explain it in class but gamma is simply the inverse of how long you are infectious. So if you are infectious 10 days, gamma is 0.1 (because on average 0.1 of the group move out per day), if you are infectious 2 days gamma is 0.5 (because on average 1/2 of the group move out each day).