Answer
(a) 1
(b) $\frac{d{p(t)}}{dt} =\frac{ake^{-kt}}{ (1+ae^{-kt})^{2}}$
(c) Graph is as shown below:
Work Step by Step
Under certain circumstances a rumor spreads according to the equation
$p(t) =\frac{1}{1+ae^{-kt}}$
where $p(t)$ is the proportion of the population that has heard the rumor at time t and a and k are positive constants.
(a) $\lim\limits_{t \to \infty} p(t)=\lim\limits_{t \to \infty} \frac{1}{1+ae^{-kt}}=\frac{1}{1+0}=1$
(b) Need to find the rate of spread of the rumor.
$\frac{d{p(t)}}{dt} =\frac{d}{dt} (1+ae^{-kt})^{-1}$
Hence, $\frac{d{p(t)}}{dt} =\frac{ake^{-kt}}{ (1+ae^{-kt})^{2}}$
(c) Graph $p$ for the case $a= 10, k = 0.5$ with $t$ measured in hours. Use the graph to estimate how long it will take for 80% of the population to hear the rumor.
$p(t) =\frac{1}{1+10e^{-0.5t}}$
This implies
$p(t)=0.8$ when $t\approx 7.4 $hours