|
If you go to www.npq.org,
you'll find the table I've been using for my data. THEY
predict that the world's population in
2050
will only be 9,309,051,539!
That's WAY off our guess.
Why were we so far off?
Well, remember the graph
of exponential growth? |
 |
It turns out that, in the long
run, populations don't really grow exponentially. Because
of other factors like disease, war and limited resources,
population growth starts to slow down.
 |
This is called logistic growth.
(And it's got a really messy
formula.) |
But, lucky for us, exponential
growth and our formula is a great short-term predictor (model)
for populations. It just doesn't work well for large time
spans.
YOUR TURN:
If there are
25,329
alien bacteria in your petrie dish at
6am
and 100,000
at 7pm,
find the rate of growth.
*Note that this
is bacteria -- not alien amoebas!
Use this rate to predict how
many alien bacteria there will be at midnight.
|
The printing
and distribution and/or downloading of these lessons is strictly
prohibited. |
|
