One day, a controversial video is posted on the Internet that seemingly gives concrete evidence of life on other planets. Suppose that 50 people see the video the first day after it is posted and that this number doubles everyday after that.

Question

One day, a controversial video is posted on the Internet that seemingly gives concrete evidence of life on other planets.  Suppose that 50 people see the video the first day after it is posted and that this number doubles everyday after that.

a) write an expression to describe the number of people who have seen the video t days after it is posted.

b) one week later, a second video is posted that reveals the first as a hoax.  Suppose that 20 people see this video the first day after it is posed and that this number triples every day after that.  Write an expression to describe the number of people who have seen the 2nd video t days after it is posted.

c)  set the two expressions from parts a and b to equal each other and then solve for t.  What does this solution mean?

Ok can you just check my answers for parts a and b, except for part c i don't know what this means.

a) A(t)=50(2)^t
b) A(t)=20(3)^t
c) I set them equal to each other and the variable disappeared on me..ie cancelled out What does this mean?

bobpursley · Answer

right on a,b. 50 2^t = 20 3^t take the log of each side log50 + t*log2 = log 20 + t log3 solve for t log to any base, your calculator is your friend on this.

Jus · Answer

Ok but I have log50-log20=tlog3-tlog2 Now what?

Jus · Answer

log50-log20=tlog(3/2)