Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A biologist grows a culture of bacteria in a flask. She counts the population in thousands, and is the time in hours. From her measurements the rate of growth is thousand per hour. At there are thousand bacteria, so . She wants a formula for . The top is not the derivative of the bottom, which is , so she splits the top as . The first part gives a logarithm. For the second part she completes the square, , and uses the inverse tangent. She writes . Find the number . Then find from , and find the population after two hours. Give to four decimal places, and and in thousands to four decimal places.
Complete the square, then use a standard form.
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. thousand per hour, and thousand.
Plan. Split the top, integrate the two parts, fix with , then evaluate at .
Step 1. Split the top. .
Step 2. Integrate. The first part gives . The second part is . So .
Step 3. The constant. At : . So thousand.
Step 4. At hours. thousand.
Answer: , thousand and thousand.
Check. The growth rate is positive, so must rise from thousand. It does.
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