Imagine that there are 1,000 people in the world infected with coronavirus. We’re going to estimate how the number of infections increases for doubling times of 2.5 and 5 days.

(a) Before doing any calculations, what does your intuition tell you about how different the number of infections will be after 50 days for these two doubling rates? Make a guess as to how many more will be infected when the doubling time is 2.5 days.

(b) Calculate how many people are infected after 50 days if the doubling time is 2.5 days.

(c) Calculate how many people are infected after 50 days if the doubling time is 5 days.

(d) Was your intuition in part (a) accurate?