Answer:
There will be 88.6% of her bone mass remaining when she returns to earth.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to the problem, the astronaut will have 2% less bone mass than at the beginning of that month. So let's say is her original bone mass. In that case, her bone mass after the first month will be:
on the second month, her bone mass will be:
on the third month, her bone mass will be:
and so on, we can see a pattern here. The formula for her remaining bone mass can be generally written like this:
where n is the number of months, so after 6 months, her remaining bone mass will be:
that 0.886 gives us the percentage as a decimal number. When turned into a percentage we get that:
There will be 88.6% of her bone mass remaining after 6 months.