For a special breed of bacteria, the individual bacteria never die. Luckily they reproduce very slowly; however, each time they reproduce they create two copies
of themselves. If the culture begins with 3 bacteria, and each one reproduces only
on the last day of the year, how many years will be required for the culture to grow
to at least 45,000 bacteria?

infinitely many solutions

step-by-step explanation:

we have been given the equation;

2(2x + 3) = -4 + 2(2x + 5)

we need to determine the value of x.

2(2x + 3), we expand this expression to obtain 4x + 6

similarly 2(2x + 5) will become 4x + 10

now we have;

4x + 6 = -4 + 4x + 10

4x + 6 = 4x + 10 - 4

4x + 6 = 4x + 6

the expression on the left hand side is identical to the one on the right hand side. therefore, we are looking at just a single straight line whose equation is;

y = 4x + 6

consequently, we shall have infinitely many solutions

21

step-by-step explanation:

, and

for

step-by-step explanation:

we can analyze the pattern at which the terms increase. let us denote , , , so that we can call

note the following:

the pattern: to get the next term value, we just add the next term number (e.g. 1st, 2nd, to the previous term value (term values are the given numbers in the question, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15,

from , to get to , we add

from , to get to , we add

etc.

we need to form a recursive formula, a formula that has the next term as a function of the previous term. so a possible recursive formula can be

, and for