1.
Indices
1. A bacteria culture doubles in size every 3 hours. If the initial population is 500, express the
population after 9 hours as a power of 2, and calculate the population.
2. An investment grows at a rate of 4% per year. If the initial investment was $1000, express the
amount of money in the account after 5 years in terms of powers.
3. If a car depreciates in value by 10% each year, and its initial value is $20, 000, express its value
after 3 years as a power of 0.9, and find the final value.
4. A ball is dropped from a height of 81 meters and bounces back up to half of its previous height
each time. Find the height of the ball after the fifth bounce using powers.
5. A species of fish in a pond increases its population by a factor of 1.5 every month. If there were
initially 200 fish, express the number of fish after 4 months as a power of 1.5, and calculate the
final population.
2. Logarithms
1. If the intensity of an earthquake is given by I = 10M , where M is the magnitude, and the
intensity of a certain earthquake is 1000, find the magnitude using logarithms.
2. The pH of a solution is given by pH = − log10 ([H + ]), where [H + ] is the hydrogen ion
concentration. If the hydrogen ion concentration is 1 × 10−5 , find the pH of the solution.
3. A population of a certain species is modeled by P = 1000 × 2t , where t is the number of years. If
the population reaches 8000, find t using logarithms.
4. In a radio station, the power of a signal is measured as P = 10 log10 (I), where I is the intensity.
If the power is 30 dB, find the intensity.
5. The brightness of a star is given by B = 10 log10 (L), where L is the luminosity. If the brightness
is 5, find the luminosity using logarithms.
3. Surds
1. A rectangular park has a length of 50 meters and a width of
18 meters. Find the area of the
park, leaving your answer in surd form.
2. The diagonal of a square is 5 2 meters. Find the length of one side of the square in terms of
surds.
3. If the hypotenuse of a right triangle is 45 meters and one leg is
20 meters, find the length of
the other leg using surds.
4. A ladder is leaning against a wall such that it reaches a height of 4 3 meters. If the base of the
ladder is 27 meters away from the wall, find the length of the ladder.
5. A cylinder has a radius of 7 cm and a height of
3 cm. Find the volume of the cylinder, leaving
the answer in terms of surds.
4. Sequence and Series
1. A theater has 30 seats in the first row, 35 in the second, and continues to increase by 5 seats per
row. How many seats are in the 10th row, and what is the total number of seats in the first 10
rows?
2. A ball is dropped from a height of 100 meters, and each time it bounces back up to 34 of its
previous height. Find the height of the ball after the fourth bounce.
3. The population of a town was initially 10, 000, and it increases by 5% annually. What will the
population be after 8 years?
4. A person saves $20 in the first month, $40 in the second month, and continues to double the
savings each month. What will be the total amount saved after 6 months?
5. In an arithmetic sequence, the first term is 3, and the common difference is 4. Find the 15th term
of the sequence, and calculate the sum of the first 15 terms.