Answer:
Hourly growth rate is 4.24%
Explanation:
The formula or exponential growth is given by:
Where
y is the instantaneous value of growing culture
a is the initial value of growing culture
r is the 'hourly' growth rate
n is the number of hours passed
As per given values:
y = 1997; a = 1800; n = 2.5
Hence, growth rate is:
r = 0.0424 = 4.24%