Eric is culturing bacteria that have a growth rate of 5% per hour. If the current population is 76,683 bacteria, how many bacteria will there be in 12 hours? If necessary, round your answer to the nearest whole number.
To find the number of bacteria after 12 hours, we need to find the growth factor, which is 1 + growth rate = 1 + 0.05 = 1.05
We can then multiply the current population by the growth factor 12 times to find the bacteria count after 12 hours.
Bacteria count after 12 hours = 76,683 * (1.05)^12
= 76,683 * 1.79585674289
= 137,951.6
Rounded to the nearest whole number, there will be 137,952 bacteria in 12 hours. Answer: \boxed{137,952}.