In a lab experiment, a population of 450 bacteria is able to triple every hour. Which equation matches the number of bacteria in the population after 3 hours? Answer \( \begin{array}{l}B=3(450)^{3} \\ B=3(450)(450)(450) \\ B=450(3)(3)(3)(3) \\ B=450(3)(3)(3)\end{array} \)

In this scenario, you're observing exponential growth, where the bacteria multiply by a factor of three every hour. After 3 hours, the number of bacteria can be expressed as \( B = 450 \times 3^3 \). This means that you take the original population (450) and multiply it by 3 raised to the power of the number of hours (3 in this case). So, the formula works like this: \( B = 450 \times 3 \times 3 \times 3 \). A common mistake in these types of problems is mistakenly multiplying by 3, rather than raising it to the power that corresponds to the number of growth periods. Always remember that with exponential growth, every hour the bacteria multiply by the same factor, so you need to account for the number of compounding periods accurately!