Question

A bee farm has 700 bees on September 1st. Winter is coming and the number of bees decreases 35% every 2 months from September 1st until March 1st. How many bees are on the farm on March 1st?

Answer 1

Answer:

$P_t\approx 244 \ bees$

Step-by-step explanation:

-The bee's population follows an exponential decay of the form:

$P_t=P_oe^{-rt}$

$P_t$ is the population at time t

$P_o$  is the initial population size

$t, r$ is time and rate of decay respectively.

#We substitute and solve $P_t$:

$t=6/2=3\\\\\therefore P_t=P_oe^{-rt}\\\\=700e^{-0.35\times 3}\\\\\\=244.96\\\\\approx 244\ bees$

-Since it's a decay, we round down any fractional amount in the population.

Hence, the population after 6 months is approximately 244 bees