Question

A microbiologist inoculates a growth medium with 100 bacterial cells/ml. If the generation time of the species is 1 hour, and there is no lag phase, how long will it be before the culture contains more than 10,000 cells/ml?

Answer 1

Seven hours

Step-by-step explanation:

We were being told that;

A microbiologist inoculates a growth medium with 100 bacterial cells/ml

Also, the generation time of the species is 1 hour.

And more so no lag phase (i.e a period where the individual bacteria are maturing and not yet able to divide). There is nothing as such in the process given. Hence, this will make the replication more faster.

So , since the generation time is one hour and we are being given 100 bacterial cells/ml

∴

After 1 hour= replication of the bacterial cells would have been doubled to =200 bacterial cells

2nd hour = 400 bacterial cells

3rd hour = 800 bacterial cells

4th hour = 1600 bacterial cells

5th hour = 3200 bacterial cells

6th hour = 6400 bacterial cells

7th hour = 12800 bacterial cells

∴ We can see that at at the 7th hour, the culture has contained more than 10,000 cells/ml