sat suite question viewer
At the time that an article was first featured on the home page of a news website, there were comments on the article. An exponential model estimates that at the end of each hour after the article was first featured on the home page, the number of comments on the article had increased by of the number of comments on the article at the end of the previous hour. Which of the following equations best represents this model, where is the estimated number of comments on the article hours after the article was first featured on the home page and ?
Explanation
Choice D is correct. It's given that an exponential model estimates that the number of comments on an article increased by a fixed percentage at the end of each hour. Therefore, the model can be represented by an exponential equation of the form , where is the estimated number of comments on the article hours after the article was first featured on the home page and and are constants. It's also given that when the article was first featured on the home page of the news website, there were comments on the article. This means that when , . Substituting for and for in the equation yields , or . It's also given that the number of comments on the article at the end of an hour had increased by of the number of comments on the article at the end of the previous hour. Multiplying the percent increase by the number of comments on the article at the end of the previous hour yields the number of estimated additional comments the article has on its home page: , or comments. Thus, the estimated number of comments for the following hour is the sum of the comments from the end of the previous hour and the number of additional comments, which is , or . This means that when , . Substituting for , for , and for in the equation yields , or . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields . Substituting for and for in the equation yields . Thus, the equation that best represents this model is .
Choice A is incorrect. This model represents a situation where the number of comments at the end of each hour increased by of the number of comments at the end of the previous hour, rather than .
Choice B is incorrect. This model represents a situation where the number of comments at the end of each hour increased by of the number of comments at the end of the previous hour, rather than .
Choice C is incorrect. This model represents a situation where the number of comments at the end of each hour was times the number of comments at the end of the previous hour, rather than increasing by of the number of comments at the end of the previous hour.