Page - 238 - in Programming for Computations – Python - A Gentle Introduction to Numerical Simulations with Python 3.6, Volume Second Edition

238 8 SolvingOrdinaryDifferentialEquations Fig. 8.15 The effect ofvaccination:p=0.0005 Fig. 8.16 The effect ofvaccination:p=0.0001 is usually quite a challenge in mathematics, but as long as we solve the equations numerically ina program,adiscontinuouscoefficient is easy to treat. There are two ways to implement the discontinuous coefficientp(t): through a functionand throughanarray.The functionapproachisperhaps theeasiest: def p(t): return 0.005 if (6*24 <= t <= 15*24) else 0 Note the handyif-else construction in the return statement here. It is a one-line alternative to, forexample, if (6*24 <= t <= 15*24): return 0.005