The population of a certain bacteria doubles every hour. The function P(t)=80(2)t represents the number of bacteria, P(t), after t hours.

Question

Find and interpret P(0).

Answer 1

To find P(0), we plug in t=0 into the function P(t):

P(0) = 80(2)^0
P(0) = 80(1)
P(0) = 80

Therefore, when t=0, there are 80 bacteria. This represents the initial population of bacteria before any doubling has occurred.