Question

The population of bacteria in a petri dish doubles every 16 h. The population of the bacteria is initially 500 organisms. How long will it take for the population of the bacteria to reach 800? Round your answer to the nearest tenth of an hour.

1) 8.7 h
2) 10.8 h
3) 11.1 h
4) 12.6 h

Answer 1

To find out how long it will take for the population of bacteria to reach 800, we need to determine how many times the population doubles. The population doubles every 16 hours, so we need to find how many times 16 goes into the total time it takes for the population to reach 800. By calculating the doubling times, we find that it takes approximately 10.8 hours for the population to reach 800 bacteria.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find out how long it will take for the population of bacteria to reach 800, we need to determine how many times the population doubles. The population doubles every 16 hours, so we need to find how many times 16 goes into the total time it takes for the population to reach 800. Let's calculate:

16 hours = 2 doubling times

32 hours = 3 doubling times

48 hours = 4 doubling times

And so on... By calculating the doubling times, we find that it takes approximately 10.8 hours for the population to reach 800 bacteria. Therefore, the correct answer is option 2) 10.8 hours.