The number of earthquakes that occur worldwide is a decreasing exponential function of their magnitude on the Richter scale. Between 2000 and 2005, there were 7480 earthquakes of magnitude 5 and 793 earthquakes of magnitude 6. (Source: National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey)
  1. Find a formula for the number of earthquakes, in terms of their magnitude.
    Do not use any commas: For example, instead of “10,000” enter simply “10000”.
  2. It is difficult to keep an accurate count of small earthquakes. Use your formula to estimate the number of magnitude 1 earthquakes that occurred between 2000 and 2005.
    How many earthquakes of magnitude 8 occurred?