Question

On the first day of spring, an entire field of flowering trees blossoms. The population of locusts consuming these flowers rapidly increases as the trees blossom. The locust population increases by a factor of 5 every 22 days, and can be modeled by a function, L, which depends on the amount of time, t (in days).

Before the first day of spring, there were 7600 locusts in the population.


Write a function that models the locust population t days since the first day of spring.

Answer 1

y=7600(5^(t/22))

Explanation:

This is going to be an exponential function as it grows rapidly.

This type of question can be solved using the formula y=a(r^x), where a is the inital amount, r the factor by which the amount increases and x is the unit of time after which the amount increases.

x=t/22

a=7600

r=5

∴y=7600(5^(t/22))