(40pts)
bacteria are the most common example of exponential growth the table below shows the number of e-coli bacteria that would be present after each hour of the first six hours.

a) each hour the number is multiplied by 16. Such a geometric sequence is described by an exponential growth function.

b) n = 16^t . . . . . n is number of bacteria; t is hours

c) about 7.923×10^28

d) the rule would be multiplied by 100/16=6.25, so becomes n=6.25·16^t

Step-by-step explanation:

a) We presume the table represents exponential growth because it was formulated with that purpose in mind. ("Why?" is always a tricky question.) It represents exponential growth because each table entry is 16 times the one before. A constant multiplier like that is characteristic of exponential growth.

___

b) In part (a) we noted the common ratio is 16. Since the first term (for t=1) is also 16, we can write the equation as ...

n = 16^t

where n is the number of bacteria and t is time in hours

___

c) Evaluating the formula for t=24, we get ...

n = 16^24 ≈ 7.923×10^28

n = 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,336

This is the estimate of the number present after 24 hours based on the formula.

___

d) If the starting number is different, the rule is multiplied by a factor that gives the appropriate starting value. The above answer assumes your "starting value" is 100 after 1 hour. If the starting value at 0 hours is 100, then the rule of part (b) gets multiplied by 100, not 6.25

n = 100·16^t . . . . . starting with 100 at t=0

n = 6.25·16^t . . . . starting with 100 at t=1

_____

Comment on exponential bacteria growth

The number of bacteria estimated in part (c) have an approximate volume of 102 cubic kilometers, roughly the volume of Lake Nicaragua.

sup

step-by-step explanation:

dalila is incorrect. the whisker on the left is very long, going all the way out to 5. the whisker goes from 5 to 30, so it has a spread of 25. the rest of the box plot values are closer together, so 5 is an outlier