Learning Resources

Lesson

We have already used the TI83 to find the slope of a tangent line to a curve at any given point (if you need a review go back to Lesson 02 of Section 01 of this unit).

For this part of the Chapter Project, you are asked to use this method to find the rate of growth of the bacteria in each sample of meat one hour prior to the party. One hour prior to the party for Richard is at time t = 2 in the function for his sample. For John it will be at time t = 3.5, and for Sadie it will be at time t = 23.

The value you find for the slope is the rate of change in the function at that point. In this example, that corresponds to the rate of change in the size of the bacteria colony in the meat, i.e. its growth rate. It should be expressed as number of bacteria/cm² per hour.

Activity

Refer to the directions on page 162 and complete part (c) of the Chapter Project on pages 124 & 125.

Test Yourself

There are no extra questions for this lesson. Simply submit your work to date to your online teacher.