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15 votes
15 votes
A population of bacteria contains 150 bacteria in generation 1 and triples in

population every generation. This sequence represents the number of
bacteria for the first few generations:
150, 450,1350, ...
What is the explicit formula for the number of bacteria in generation n?

User Avinash Shah
by
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1 Answer

13 votes
13 votes

Answer: bn= 150*3^(n-1)( bn is a quantity of bacteria in generation n)

Explanation:

It looks like geometrical sequence, each next generation is three times greater than previous one. So the r of this sequence is 3.

The first generation has 150 representatives, so b1=150

The formula of geometrical sequence is bn=b1*r^(n-1)

(in our case bn is a quantity of bacteria in generation n)

so bn= 150*3^(n-1)( bn is a quantity of bacteria in generation n)

User Macarena
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3.0k points