document.write( "Question 1104616: I just wanted see if oen of my answeres is correct here. At first there were 20 incidents. Three months later there were 560 incidents. How many incidents would there be at the end of 9 months? I solved this two ways: the first way I simply did 560/40 equals 14, and then for the growth over 9 months 40(14)(14)(14) equals 109,760. Since my textbook never validated this process, I used the At=A0e^kt formula and got 110071 (rounded up to get the decimal out). The two answers are in the same ball park, but they can't both be correct. Can you help? Thanks! \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #719325 by greenestamps(13334) $\"\"$ $\"About$

You can put this solution on YOUR website!

\n" ); document.write( "You are working the same problem by two different methods; if your methods are right, you should be getting the same answer both ways.

\n" ); document.write( "Your problem is that you need to keep more decimal places in the value of k if you use the At=A0e^kt formula.

\n" ); document.write( "The value of k corresponding to a growth factor of 14 over each 3 month period is ln(14) = 2.6390573 (to 7 decimal places).

\n" ); document.write( "When I solve the problem using that many decimal places, I get the same 109760 answer.
\n" ); document.write( "When I use 2.64 for ln(14) (rounded to only 2 decimal places), I get your 110071 answer.

\n" ); document.write( "In general, because of the rapid growth nature of exponential growth, you need to keep a large number of digits in your value of k to get several digits of accuracy in your answer. \n" ); document.write( "

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