Final answer:
The initial amount of the toxin in the water is 1300 milligrams, as indicated by the coefficient in the exponential decay model Toxin = 1300(0.81ᵒᵉᵍ).
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question deals with a model that describes the decay of a toxin in water over time. The given model is Toxin = 1300(0.81ᵒᵉᵍ), which is an exponential decay function. In this model, the initial amount of toxin is represented by the coefficient of the exponential function.
Initially, when min (time in minutes) is 0, the exponential part of the function 0.81ᵒᵉᵍ will be equal to 1, since anything to the power of 0 is 1. Therefore, the initial number of milligrams of the toxin in the water is 1300mg, as this is the value of the coefficient.