POSSIBLE SOLUTION(S)

We offer up our first modeling solution which leads to a differential equation whose solution will give the size of the slick as a function of time.

We now offer an alternative solution brought about by class discussion of several groups of students in which average growth rate is used to estimate the time intervals between initial observations.

In this approach we attempt to estimate the growth rate (average growth rate) over each 10 minute interval and use this growth rate to predict the amount of time between the end observation at one interval and the initial observation at the next interval by dividing this average growth rate into the difference in the growth from one observation to the next.

And now let us plot both models over the data: