The population of a bacteria colony grows by a consistent percentage each hour and can be modeled by the function y = 500(1.16)t. what does the value 500 represent in the function? a) the growth factor of bacteria. b) the initial number of bacteria. c) the number of time intervals. d) the number of bacteria after t years.

Astudent draws two parabolas on graph paper. both parabolas cross the x-axis at (-4, 0) and (6,0). the y-intercept of thefirst parabola is (0, –12). the y-intercept of the second parabola is (0-24). what is the positive difference between the avalues for the two functions that describe the parabolas? write your answer as a decimal rounded to the nearest tenth.