Question

If a person is born every 5 seconds and a person dies every 12 seconds, then how many seconds does it take for the population to grow by one?

Please give an explanation as well.

Answer 1

See the post by Steve J. in response to this question.

Explanation:

I have withdrawn my answer as incorrect. The referenced one is much better.

Answer 2

Population grows at the rate of one net birth every 8.57 s.

Explanation:

Let us look at 60 seconds because there are an whole (not fractional) number of births (12) and an whole number of deaths (5) in 60 s. Therefore, on average, the population grows at the rate of

`(12 "births" - 5 "deaths")/(60 s) = (0.1167 "net population increase")/s`

The inverse of that is `(1 s)/(0.1167 "net population increase") = (8.57 s)/"net population increase"`

I hope this helps,
Steve