Complete Question
After a special medicine is introduced into a petri dish containing a bacterial culture, the number of bacteria remaining in the dish decreases rapidly. The number of bacteria decays by a factor of 1/15, every 6.76minutes, and can be modeled by a function, N, which depends on the amount of time, t (in minutes). Before the medicine was introduced, there were 90,000 bacteria in the Petri dish. Write a function that models the number of bacteria t minutes since the medicine was introduced.
Answer:
Nt = 90,000 × e^t/15
Step-by-step explanation:
The function that models the number of bacteria t minutes since the medicine was introduced is written as
Nt = No×e^λt
Where:
No = The initial number of the bacteria after time t
Nt = The current number of the bacteria after time t
λ = Decay constant or factor
t = Time in years
From the question,
No = 90,000 bacteria
Nt = The current number of the bacteria after time t
λ = 1/15
t = Time in years
Therefore, our function is written as:
Nt = 90,000×e^1/15 × t
Nt = 90,000 × e^t/15
