Apopulation of bacteria begins with 1 bacterium and triples every hour. which equation can be used to model this situation?

For this case, what you should do is write an equation of the potential type to model the problem.
 An equation of the potential type can be for example:
 n (t) = A * (b ^ t)
 Where
 A: initial population
 b: number of times the population grows
 t: growth time (hours)
 The equation that best describes this problem is
 n (t) = 1 * (3 ^ t)
 answer
 n (t) = 1 * (3 ^ t)