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Since the amount on the first square is 1, on the second is 2, the third is 2 , etc.,
63
since there are 64 squares on the chessboard, the final square gets 2
grains (and
64
the total is 2 -1). To get a sense for how much things grow after various doublings,
evaluate the following in scientific notation:
5
20
50
64
2 of 3
is a standard problem).
a.
5
2 = 32 = 3.2 x 10 ;
10
= 1024 = 1.0 x 10
20
= 1.0 x 10
50
= 1.1 x 10
15
64
= 1.8 x 10
19
2
2
2
2
b.
After each half hour the number of streptococci doubles. So at the end of one hour we
have two doublings and at the end of 24 we have 48 doublings. This is the same as 50
15
14
-18
-18
m = 0.5 x 10
m .
Since the bacillus travels in water, is should have about the same density as water,
3
-18
-15
m = 0.5 x 10
14
kg.
-15
x 0.5 x 10
kg = 0.15 kg.
This is about 0.2% of my total mass. (Note that in two days and two hours -- 4 more
doublings -- it will be 3.2%, and two hours later it will be almost 50% of my total
3 of 3
mass!)
c. If you are familiar with logarithms, this is pretty straightforward. With each year,
the population increases by a factor of 1.01. So after N years, it increases by a factor
N
of (1.01) . To find for what N you get a doubling, you need to solve.
N
(1.01) = 2.
We do this by taking the logarithm of each side.
N log(1.01) = log 2
so
-3