Calculating doubling time in exponential growth

[hackit]

Cool lecture on exponential growth http://sciencehack.com/videos/view/F-QA2rkpBSY The video shows how to calculate the doubling time by dividing 70 by the growth rate. So for a 7% growth rate, the doubling time is 10 years.

 

[Crosson]

This is a famous video that I have seen presented in college classes, thanks for sharing the link online. The University of Colorado professor who is delivering the lecture speaks very clearly, and his message is quite relevant, so I think everyone with a basic education in math should watch it.

My favorite lines are:

"The greatest failure of the human species is its inability to understand the exponential function."

and

"What time is it when the dish is half full? One minute before 12:00."