A strain of the cold virus is detected that spreads on average to 3 people for each person who is infected. assuming no measures are taken to reduce the spread, which type of function would best model the number of people who have been infected with this cold over time?

Question

1)a quadratic function
2)a linear function
3) an exponential function
4)a periodic function

Answer 1

The best model for the number of people infected with a cold virus that spreads to an average of 3 people for each infected person over time is an exponential function.

This is because in an exponential growth model, the number of new infections increases rapidly as each infected person spreads the virus to multiple others. If each infected person spreads the virus to 3 more individuals, the number of infected people can grow very quickly, leading to exponential growth in the total number of infections.

So the correct answer is 3) an exponential function.