Question

A town of 500,000 people is struck by a devastating epidemic. The number of people infected after t days is modeled by

500,000/1+499e^-1.617t
How many people will be infected 4 days after the breakout? Round to the nearest whole number.

Answer 1

Answer: The following formula determines the total number of infected people after t days:

500,000 / (1 + 499e^(-1.617t))

We can enter t = 4 into the algorithm to determine the total number of affected 4 days after the outbreak and then assess:

Explanation:

500,000 / (1 + 499e^(-1.617(4))) = 500,000 / (1 + 499e^(-6.468))

= 500,000 / (1 + 499(0.00155))

= 500,000 / (1 + 0.77445)

= 500,000 / 1.77445

When this is rounded to the closest whole number, we obtain:

281,580

Therefore, four days after the outbreak, about 281,580 people will be infected.