at 1 : 00 pm , there were 10.0 grams of bacteria . the bacteria increased to x grams at 4 : 00 pm , and 16.9 grams at 7 : 00 pm . if the amount of bacteria present increased by the same fraction during each of the 3 - hour periods , how many grams of bacteria were present at 4 : 00 pm ?
"let x be the factor by which the bacteria increases every three hours . at 4 : 00 pm , the amount of bacteria was 10 x and at 7 : 00 pm it was 10 x ^ 2 . 10 x ^ 2 = 16.9 x ^ 2 = 1.69 x = 1.3 at 4 : 00 pm , the amount of bacteria was 10 ( 1.3 ) = 13 grams . the answer is a ."
multiply(sqrt(divide(16.9, 10.0)), 10.0)