In this problem, we are looking for the doubling time of the wage of the Toyota automobile assembly line workers. Initially, their wage is $6.70 and by the end of 15 years, their salary is now $29.59.
What we can find here first is the rate of the increase of the salary of the workers. We can use the equation
[tex]y=y_0e^{rt}[/tex]
We are looking for the value of r. We have to derive an equation solving for r. We have
[tex]\begin{gathered} \frac{y}{y_0^{}}=e^{rt} \\ rt=\ln \frac{y}{y_0} \\ r=\frac{1}{t}\ln \frac{y}{y_0} \end{gathered}[/tex]
Now, we solve for the value of r given y = 29.59, y0 = 6.70, and t = 15 years. We get
[tex]\begin{gathered} r=\frac{1}{15}\ln (\frac{29.59}{6.70}) \\ r=0.099yr^{-1} \end{gathered}[/tex]
The doubling time is computed as
[tex]d=\frac{\ln 2}{r}[/tex]
Substitute the value of r on the equation above and solve, we get
[tex]d=\frac{\ln 2}{0.099}=7.00yr[/tex]
Hence, the doubling time for this problem is equal to 7 years.
Answer: 7 years
