Question

Natasha is observing the growth of a population of bacteria. She started out with 250 bacteria cells. The population of bacteria quadruples every hour. Use x to represent the number of hours and y to represent the population of the bacteria. Enter an equation that represents this scenario in the box.

Answer 1

`y=250(5)^x`

Explanation:

The growth of a population of bacteria can be represented by exponential growth function,

`y=a(1+r)^x`

where,

y = the population of the bacteria after x hours,

x = the number of hours,

a = initial population of bacteria,

r = rate of growth,

At the beginning the number bacteria was 250 and the population of bacteria quadruples every hour i.e rate of growth is 400% or 4 per hour.

Putting all the values,

`y=250(1+4)^x`

`\Rightarrow y=250(5)^x`