OK, so, what if it gets more complicated?

What if the amoeba doesn't make a complete split in one hour?  What if it only makes part of the split in an hour?

Let's say that a certain alien amoeba splits into 1.25 amoebas each hour...  If we start with 37 amoebas, how many will there be in 6 hours?

First, we need to get our growth formula:

Our split factor is 1.25...

Our initial population is 37...

The number of splits is 6...

number of amoebas = 37 * 1.25^( 6 ) ... 37 is the initial population ... 1.25 is the split factor ... 6 is the number of splits

 

number of amoebas = approximately 141.14

 


TRY IT:

If we start with 153 alien amoebas and each amoeba splits into 2.4 amoebas each hour, how many will there be in 7 hours?