@report {24527, title = {Demystifying the Math of the Coronavirus}, year = {Working Paper}, abstract = {We provide an elementary mathematical description of the spread of the coronavirus. We explain two\ fundamental relationships: How the rate of growth in new infections is determined by the {\textquotedblleft}effective reproductive\ number{\textquotedblright}; and how the effective reproductive number is affected by social distancing. By making a key\ approximation, we are able to formulate these relationships very simply and thereby avoid complicated\ mathematics. The same approximation leads to an elementary method for estimating the effective eproductivenumber.}, author = {Elon Kohlberg and Abraham Neyman} }