Question

A professor is examining a new strain of bacteria. The amount of bacteria can be modeled by function s(n) = 20 · bn, where n is the number of hours and b is an unknown positive base.
Based on the model, there were initially
bacteria.

If b = 1.85, the hourly percent growth rate of the bacteria would be

Answer 1

For this case we have a function of the form:
 $y = A * (b) ^ n$
 Where,
 A: initial amount
 b: growth rate (if b> 1)
 n: time in hours
 Substituting values we have:
 $s (n) = 20 * b ^ n$
 We have then that the initial amount is:
 $A = 20$
 If b = 1.85 then the growth percentage is:
 $(1.85-1) * (100) = 85%$
 Answer:
 here were initially 20 bacteria.
 The hourly percent growth rate of the bacteria would be 85%