Question

The population of some bacteria increases by 15% every day. If the original

population was 6000 bacteria, calculate the size of the population after 10 days

Answer 1

To solve this problem, we can use the formula for exponential growth:

N = N0 * (1 + r)^t

Where:

N0 = the initial population size

N = the population size after t time periods

r = the growth rate per time period

t = the number of time periods

In this case, we know that the initial population (N0) is 6000, the growth rate (r) is 15% per day, and we want to find the population size (N) after 10 days (t = 10).

First, we need to convert the growth rate from a percentage to a decimal:

r = 15% / 100% = 0.15

Now we can plug in the values and solve for N:

N = 6000 * (1 + 0.15)^10

N = 6000 * 3.439

N ≈ 20,634

Therefore, the population of bacteria after 10 days would be approximately 20,634.