In the 1st generation, there are 8 raccoons in a forest. Every generation after that, the raccoon population triples. This sequence represents the numbers of raccoons for the first few generations:

8, 24, 72, ...

What is the explicit formula for the number of raccoons in generationn?

A.

a(n) = 3 8^{(n- 1)}

B.

a(n) = 3 + (n- 1)8

C.

a(n) = 8 3^{(n- 1)}

D.

a(n) = 8 + (n- 1)3