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Construct an equation that can be used to represent Growth rate

User Chlunde
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1 Answer

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14 votes

Answer: y=C(1+r)t

Step-by-step explanation:

The general exponential growth model is y=C(1+r)t , where C is the initial amount or number, r is the growth rate (for example, a 2% growth rate means r=0.02 ), and t is the time elapsed.

Example 1:

A population of 32,000 with a 5% annual growth rate would be modeled by the equation:

y=32000(1.05)t

with t in years.

Sometimes, you may be given a doubling or tripling rate rather than a growth rate in percent. For example, if you are told that the number of cells in a bacterial culture doubles every hour, then the equation to model the situation would be: y=C⋅2t (with t in hours).

Example 2:

Suppose a culture of 100 bacteria is put into a petri dish and the culture doubles in size every hour. Predict the number of bacteria that will be in the dish after 12 hours.

P(t)=100⋅2t

P(12)=100⋅212=409,600 bacteria

User Parit Sawjani
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