Question

A population of bacteria doubles every 18 hours. Initially, the population of bacteria is 50. What is the population of the bacteria after 60 hours?

Answer 1

technically 666.7 but rounded in 667

Answer 2

666.7

Explanation:

We know the bacteria double every 18 hours. The initial population is 50.

After 18 hours - 100

After another 18 hours - 200

After another 18 hours - 400.

We are now up to 54 hours. With just 6 more hours to go, by how much does the bacteria increase? 6 hours is 1/3 of 18 or 0.3333.... If we had another 18 hours the bacteria would have grown to 800. Instead it grows a 1/3 of this.

`(1)/(3)800=(800)/(3) =266.7`

The bacteria is 400+266.67 = 666.7 at 60 hours.