The population of a bacterial colony, , in thousands, is modeled by the function , where is the number of hours since the observation began. Which of the following is the best interpretation of in this context?
After 4 hours, the bacterial colony has a population of 1036.8 thousand.
After 1036.8 hours, the bacterial colony has a population of 4 thousand.
The bacterial colony grows by 4 thousand every 1036.8 hours.
The initial population of the colony was 1036.8 thousand, and it grew for 4 hours.
