% solve Phi0 = F(Kt) to find the age of the earth, where % F(z) = (2 theta0/L) sum_{m=0}^infty e^{-(2m+1)^2 pi^2 z/(2L)^2} MM = 501; % highest integer in sum; can show a few hundred terms needed % to get reasonably close to infinite sum %%% reasonable constants L = 6357.0e3; % m; source: "earth radius" wikipedia page K = 1.0e-6; % m^2/s; "typical value for rock" % source: "thermal diffusivity" wikipedia page theta0 = 1811; % K; melting point of iron % source: "melting points of the elements" wikipedia page Phi0 = 0.025; % K/m; "geothermal gradient in crust" source: % http://gpc.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/GPS/earthinterior.html Kt = 10.^(7:0.1:12); % %%% fake constants % L = 1; theta0 = 1; K = 1; Phi0 = 1; % Kt = 0:0.01:1; % %%% solution for t about 0.282 when MM = 5 and 0.281 when MM = 1 ss = zeros(size(Kt)); for m=1:2:MM ss = ss + exp(- m * m * pi * pi * Kt / (4 * L * L)); end FF = (2 * theta0 / L) * ss; loglog(Kt, Phi0*ones(size(Kt)), '--', Kt, FF) axis([min(Kt) max(Kt) 1e-3 1]) xlabel('Kt'), ylabel('temperature gradient') legend('\Phi_0', 'F(Kt)') Kt_cross = 10^9.22; % result from blowing up the log-log graph t_cross = Kt_cross / K; t_cross_year = t_cross / 31556926 % divide by number of seconds in a year