The relitive growth rate for a certain type of bactieria population is 85% per hour. a small culture has formed and in just 2 hours the count shows to be 12,500 bacteria in the culture what is the inital number of bacteria in the culture?

So, the initial number of bacteria in the culture = x

After 1 hour,

The number of bacteria = 185x/100

= 1.85x

After 2 hours,

The number of bacteria = (185 * 1.85x) / 100

= 3.42x

So:

3.42x = 12500

x = 12500/3.42

= 3654.97

= 3655

From the above deduction, we can conclude that the initial number of bacteria in the culture is 3655.

-taskmasters