Growth rate versus weight: Ecologists have studied how a population’s intrinsic exponential growth rate r is related to the body weight W for herbivorous mammals.26 In Table 5.2, W is the adult weight...

Growth rate versus weight: Ecologists have studied how a population’s intrinsic exponential growth rate r is related to the body weight W for herbivorous mammals.26 In Table 5.2, W is the adult weight measured in pounds, and r is growth rate per year.

a. Make a plot of ln r against ln W. Is it reasonable to model r as a power function of W?

b. Find a formula that modelsr as a power function of W, and draw a graph of this function.