Question

A forest fire doubles every 8 hours for 3 days. The fire starts off as 1 acre. Express as an expression like a^b then solve for how many acres the fire covers after those three days.

Answer 1

512 acres

Explanation:

There are 3 times 8 = 24 hours in a day, so each day the fire doubles in size 3 times to 2^3 = 8 times its starting size. In 3 days, it will have grown to 8^3 times its original size.

The acreage covered is ...

1·(2^3)^d = 8^d . . . . acres in d days

After 3 days, the size of the fire is ...

8^3 = 512 acres