Question

Ex1: A colony of bacteria doubles in population every 20 min. The initial population of the colony is 300. a) Write a model for the population of the colony of bacteria as a function of t.b) What is the population of the colony after. 10 minutes? 60 min?

Answer 1

in this problem, we have an exponential function of the form

$P=300(2)^{(\frac{t}{20})}$

Part b

For t=10 minutes

substitute in the function above

$\begin{gathered} P=300(2)^{(\frac{10}{20})} \\ P=424\text{ bacteria} \end{gathered}$

For t=60 minutes

substitute

$\begin{gathered} P=300(2)^{(\frac{60}{20})} \\ P=2,400\text{ bacteria} \end{gathered}$