Question

The bacteria took 1 hour and 40 minutes to fill the initial bottle. Explain how it only took 10 minutes to fill 3 additional empty bottles.

Answer 1

The bacteria took more time to double from 1 cell to a bottle full of cells. Once the bottle was full, each cell in the full bottle doubled, causing an additional bottle to be filled in 5 minutes. Then the 2 full bottles doubled in the next 5 minutes, causing all 3 bottles to be full.

Answer 2

Because bacteria multiply exponentially the time it takes for the next bottle to fill will be much lower compared to the original.