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Let's assume that bacteria doubles every 10 minutes. If the culture starts with 4 bacterial cells, how many bacterial cells will be present after 1 hour? (Hint: Enter the answer only, and don't forget your units!)

User Xonar
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1 Answer

4 votes

Answer: 256 bacterial cells

Explanation:

Using the half-life formula, the number of bacteria after
t minutes is
4(2)^{(t)/(10)}.

Setting
t=60 (since there are 60 minutes in an hour), we get there are
4(2)^{(60)/(10)}=256 bacterial cells.

User Todd Deshane
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