Question

A bacteria culture contains 1500 bacteria initially and doubles every hour. (a) Find a function N that models the number of bacteria after t hours. (b) Find the number of bacteria after 24 hours.

Answer 1

Answer: a) $N(t)=1500(2)^t$

b) 25165824000

Step-by-step explanation:

The exponential equation for growth is given by :-

$y= ab^t$ , where a= initial value , b =multiplicative growth factor and t = time.

Given : A bacteria culture contains 1500 bacteria initially and doubles every hour.

i.e. a = 1500 and b= 2

Then, the function N that models the number of bacteria after t hours will be :

$N(t)=1500(2)^t$

To find , the number of bacteria after 24 hours , we put t= 24 in above equation , we get

$N(24)=1500(2)^{24}\\\\=1500(16777216)=25165824000$

Hence, the number of bacteria after 24 hours is 25165824000.