Question

Miriam is studying the growth rate of bacteria. She puts the data in the following table, where x represents minutes and y represents the number of bacteria.

x

0

1

2

3

y

0.08

0.4

2

10

Which type of function is represented by the data in the table?

(1 point)
Responses

exponential growth
exponential growth

quadratic
quadratic

linear
linear

exponential decay
exponential decay

Answer 1

To determine the type of function represented by the data, we can analyze the values in the table. The values for y (the number of bacteria) grow much faster as x (the time in minutes) increases.

Here's the data again for reference:

- At x = 0, y = 0.08
- At x = 1, y = 0.4
- At x = 2, y = 2
- At x = 3, y = 10

Looking at the y-values, they increase rapidly:
- From 0.08 to 0.4 (approximately 5 times increase)
- From 0.4 to 2 (5 times increase)
- From 2 to 10 (5 times increase)

The pattern of growth suggests that as time increases, the number of bacteria increases at an accelerating rate, which is characteristic of exponential growth.

Therefore, the type of function represented by the data in the table is **exponential growth**.