Telephone tree math question!!!?

okay, the question is that you call your friend at 7 PM and tell her some news. then, at 7:03, you finish calling her. So, now 2 people know the news.

When you hang up, you call somebody else again and so does your friend, so at 7:06 PM 4 people know. And the pattern continues (the 4 people then each call somebody else, etc.) Assuming that each call lasts 3 minutes and you get connection every time. how many people know by 8 PM.

I did this myself and I found that every 3 minutes, the number of people doubles. the final answer i got was in the millions (1,000,000 something). do you think that's right? I'm kind of shocked by the answer, so i'm just asking to see. :)

At 8:00
1,048,576 people know the news or 2 to the 20th power.

After three minutes, two people know. After six, four people know.

So...after sixty minutes, 2^20 people know.

That's 1,048,576 people.

Yes, you're right. That's the power of two (as opposed to the Power of Ten, which is a game show hosted by Drew Carey).

the answer is 2^20 = 1,048,576.

You and all the other answers are correct. This is the power of an exponential function; it grows extremely fast.