A Universe of Elephants
Given an initial population of 10,000 elephants, increasing in
numbers at the rate of 1% per year without change for 20,000 years,
how many elephants are there?
| Time (years) | Elephants |
| 0.1 | 10000 |
| 1 | 10100 |
| 2 | 10201 |
| 3 | 10303 |
| 4 | 10407 |
| 5 | 10511 |
| 10 | 11048 |
| 50 | 16466 |
| 72 | 20507 |
| 100 | 27114 |
| 144 | 42055 |
| 150 | 44649 |
| 200 | 73522 |
| 216 | 86244 |
| 500 | 1465695 |
| 1000 | 214826304 |
| 2000 | 4.61503E+12 |
| 2001 | 4.6613E+12 |
| 2002 | 4.70803E+12 |
| 2024 | 5.86334E+12 |
| 2048 | 7.44929E+12 |
| 2072 | 9.46423E+12 |
| 2096 | 1.20242E+13 |
| 2120 | 1.52766E+13 |
| 5000 | 4.57549E+25 |
| 10000 | 2.09351E+47 |
| 20000 | 4.38277E+90 |
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Left unchecked, the number of elephants would soon be greater than the entire
mass of the Universe. This is not possible, therefore, the growth of population
of elephants is checked by something. A certain number of elephants starve to
death, a certain number fall prey to preditors and a certain number die of
accidents and disease. Fortunately.