The digit "3" represent the rate at which the population of rabbits is increasing.
i.e. it represents the rate at which the population of rabbits triples each year.
It is given that:
The population of a species of rabbit triples every year.
The function which is used to represent the this function i.e. the modelling function is given by:
[tex]f(x)=4\cdot 3^x[/tex]
where x represent the number of year.
Also,
[tex]f(5) = 972[/tex]
We know that the exponential function is given by:
[tex]f(x)=ab^x[/tex]
where a is the initial population and b is the rate at which the function increases or decreases.
