Under favorable conditions, bacteria can multiply every 20 minutes. Starting with one bacteria cell, how many bacteria should you expect after 15 hours? Hint: Under favorable conditions, if one bacterium becomes 2 in 20 minutes (1 multiplied by 2), those 2 become 4 in the next 20 minutes, and then those 4 become 8 in the next 20 minutes. That means that 8 bacteria resulted in 1 hour. Now calculate the growth of bacteria for 15 hours.

Question

Biology

Pooky

8 October, 05:55

Under favorable conditions, bacteria can multiply every 20 minutes. Starting with one bacteria cell, how many bacteria should you expect after 15 hours? Hint: Under favorable conditions, if one bacterium becomes 2 in 20 minutes (1 multiplied by 2), those 2 become 4 in the next 20 minutes, and then those 4 become 8 in the next 20 minutes. That means that 8 bacteria resulted in 1 hour. Now calculate the growth of bacteria for 15 hours.

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Xander Wolf · Answer 1

Starting with one bacteria, we will have 8 bacteria in 1 hour. After that we will have 15 - 1 = 14 hours more. In 1 hour we have 3 times 20 minutes (bacteria can multiply every 20 minutes). 14 x 3 = 42. It means that there are 42 periods of 20 minutes more.

The number of bacteria after 15 hours:

8 x 2^ (42) = 2^ (45) = 35,184,372,088,832.