Colby and Jaquan are growing bacteria in an experiment in a laboratory. Colby starts with 50 bacteria in his culture and the number of bacteria doubles every 2 hours. Jaquan starts with 80 of a different type of bacteria that doubles every 3 hours.

Question

Let x equal number of days.

Colby's experiment follows the model:

A. y = 50*2x

B. y = 50*2^8x

C. y = 50*2^12x

Jaquan's experiment follows the model:

A. y = 80*2^x

B. y = 80*2^8x

C. y = 80*2^12x

Answer 1

For Colby's experiment, the correct model would be:

B. y = 50*2^8x

For Jaquan's experiment, the correct model would be:

C. y = 80*2^12x

In both cases, the number of bacteria doubles every x hours, so we use the exponent of 2 raised to the power of x (number of hours) to represent that exponential growth. The specific number of bacteria at the beginning (50 for Colby and 80 for Jaquan) is multiplied by the exponential growth factor.