Population Explosion Simulator

The Population Explosion Simulator was created in response to a question on the Ask Professor Puzzler blog. In essence, the question was, "What would happen if people never died, never got old, and never stopped reproducing?"

Rather than answer the specifics of the question, we offer this simulator, which allows you to enter your own parameters and see what happens.

Provide an initial population, a range of years during which a couple can produce a child (enter -1 as the ending age, if you don't want your people to ever stop reproducing). Specify how many years apart you want each couple's children to be born, as well as a death age. Enter -1 if you want your people to live forever.

Click "Single Step" to walk through the population growth one year at a time. Can you find ways to create a stable population? A population that is growing at a stable rate? Enjoy!