Mo is keeping her potato salad in the fridge until they have dinner. When kept at the refrigerator temperature of 34 ⁰F, a particular strain of Salmonella bacteria has an hourly growth rate of 2 which means that the amount of bacteria or population would double every hour.
Write the function that models the data in this table, Bacterial Count as a function of Hours. Remember y = a(b)x where a is the starting value, b is the growth rate, and x is the time (in hours).
The function that models the data in the table is:
Bacterial Count = 1(2)^x
where:
- Bacterial Count is the population of Salmonella bacteria after x hours
- Starting value (a) is 1 (as the initial population is 1)
- Growth rate (b) is 2 (doubling every hour)
- Time (x) is the number of hours the potato salad has been in the fridge
Therefore, the function can be written as:
Bacterial Count = 2^x