population question

Question

In 2016, the population is 5,000 and increasing exponentially at a yearly rate of 4% find the population in the year 2019 and what year will the population double

Answer 1

Since the population in one year is always 1.04 times population in prior year, the population factor is 1.04³ for the 3-year period ending in 2019.  Compute that!

 

When will it double? When 1.04ⁿ = 2, which you can solve using logarithms.

n ln 1.04 = ln 2

n = (ln 2)/ (ln 1.04)

n = 17.67 years, approximately ⇐ DOUBLING TIME.