A researcher models the population of a certain type of bacteria in a petri dish over time. The function gives the estimated number of bacteria hours after the start of the experiment. Which of the following is the best interpretation of 500 in this function?
The estimated number of bacteria at the start of the experiment
The estimated increase in the number of bacteria each hour
The estimated number of bacteria after 50 hours
The number of hours it takes for the population to reach 500
