A scientist is studying bacterial growth over time. Her research is conducted by placing 10 strep bacteria in a petri dish containing enough food for the bacteria to live and thrive for the course of the research. She records the number of bacteria present every two hours for 6 hours. The collected data is shown in the table below and on the given graph. the time(hours): 0, 2, 4, 6
# of bacteria: 10, 34, 91, 363

a. What function, linear or exponential, do you think would be the best choice to model this data? Explain why you think your choice is the best-fit.

b. Explain how to determine which function is the best choice mathematically, without using a graph. Demonstrate your method.

c. Think of an example of at least 4 data points that would be best modeled by the function you did NOT choose in part a. Explain how you set up the data so that it worked with this type of function.