We have been given that a huge ice glacier in the Himalayas initially covered an area of 45 square kilo-meters. The relationship between A, the area of the glacier in square kilo-meters, and t, the number of years the glacier has been melting, is modeled by the equation .
To find the time it will take for the area of the glacier to decrease to 15 square kilo-meters, we will equate and solve for t as:
Now we will switch sides:
Let us take natural log on both sides of equation.
Using natural log property , we will get:
Therefore, it will take years for area of the glacier to decrease to 15 square kilo-meters.