Question

Thousands of years ago, ancestors of the Native Americans crossed the Bering Strait from Asia and entered the western hemisphere. Since then, they have fanned out across North and South America. The single language that the original Native Americans spoke has since split into many Indian "language families" Assume that the number of these language families has been multiplied by 13 every 6500 years. There are now approximately 150 Native American language families in the western hemisphere About when did the ancestors of today's Native Americans arrive?

Answer 1

By applying the given rate of exponential growth to the number of Native American language families, the ancestors of today's Native Americans potentially arrived in the Western Hemisphere around 19,150 years ago.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is relating the current number of Native American language families to their theoretical origin using a multiplication factor. We would solve this by using a formula for exponential growth:
n = n0 * (1+ r/100)t,
where n is the final quantity, n0 is the initial quantity (assumed to be 1 here), r is the rate of growth (1300% or 13 in this case), and t is the time involved (which we are solving for).

Therefore, applying these numbers to the formula, if 150 = 1 * (1+13)t/6500, we get that t equals approximately 19,150 years, suggesting that the ancestors of today's Native Americans potentially arrived in the Western Hemisphere around 19,150 years ago.

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