Question

A microbiologist is trying to study the effects of a new antibiotic ,belonging to Timentin family ,on a group of $30,000$ bacteria. When the antibiotic is added to the culture, the number of bacteria is reduced by half every hour. Determine the type of function which best depicts the number of bacteria remaining in the culture after the antibiotic is added.

• A. A linear function
• B. A quadratic function
• C. A polynomial function
• D. An exponential function

Answer 1

The correct option is D An exponential function

Since the number of bacteria decrease by half of the original amount, every half hour, it cannot be a linear or a quadratic function.

Also, a polynomial function doesn't have such a variation and only an exponential function has such a deep decrease.

$2^x$ for example will go from 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32 and the difference goes on increasing.