Question

During optimal conditions, the rate of change of the population of a certain organism is proportional to the population at time t

, in hours. At time t=0
hours, the population is 300. At time t=24
hours, the population is 1000. At what time t
is the population 500 ?

Answer 1

Explanation:

The rate of change of the population is proportional to the population, so we can use the exponential growth formula:

P(t) = P0 * e^(kt)

Where P0 is the initial population (300), k is the constant of proportionality, and t is the time in hours. We can use the data from t=24 hours to solve for k:

1000 = 300 * e^(24k)

Dividing both sides by 300 and taking the natural logarithm of both sides:

ln(1000/300) = 24k

ln(3.33) = 24k

k = ln(3.33) / 24

Now that we have k, we can plug it into the formula and solve for t when P(t) = 500:

P(t) = 300 * e^(kt)

500 = 300 * e^(kt)

e^(kt) = 500/300

e^(kt) = 5/3

kt = ln(5/3)

t = ln(5/3) / k

Substituting k = ln(3.33) / 24:

t = ln(5/3) / (ln(3.33) / 24)

t ≈ 11.7 hours.