Question

During the exponential growth phase of salmonella enerica bacteria in a certain environment, the population grows exponentially with a growth rate of 2.81% per hour. by what factor will an exponentially growing population of salmonella enerica bacteria grow over the course of 32 hours?

Answer 1

To calculate the factor by which a population of Salmonella enterica bacteria grows over 32 hours at a 2.81% hourly growth rate, apply the exponential growth formula e^(rt), yielding a factor of approximately 2.46.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks about the exponential growth factor for a population of Salmonella enterica bacteria over 32 hours, given a per hour growth rate of 2.81%.

To calculate this, we can use the formula for exponential growth, N = N0ert, where N is the future population size, N0 is the initial population size, r is the growth rate, and t is time.

However, since we are interested in the factor by which the population grows, we do not need to know the initial population size, and we can simplify the formula to ert.

Substituting the given values, we have e0.0281×32 which calculates to approximately e0.8992, or a growth factor about 2.46. This means that over 32 hours, the bacteria population would increase by a factor of approximately 2.46, assuming optimal conditions for growth without any resource limitations.