Question

A colony of 50 bacteria doubles in size every 170 minutes. What will the population be 680 minutes from now?

(not multiple choice)

Answer 1

ok to start divide 680 by 170 which = 4

it doubles 50 each time so it would have doubled 4 times 50+50+50+50+50+50+50+50
1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4

100 200 300 400

Answer 2

You know that total time is 680. The population doubles every 170
680/170 = 4
The value of 4 means that the population will double four times or it goes through 4 iterations.

Initial Population = 50
1st iteration = 50 * 2 = 100 (it doubles the previous pop.)
2nd iteration = 100 * 2 = 200 (it doubles the previous pop.)
3rd iteration = 200 * 2 = 400 (it doubles the previous pop.)
4th iteration = 400 * 2 = 800 (it doubles the previous pop.)