Question

How many hours would it take for a single prokaryote, dividing every 20 minutes by binary fission in a favorable environment, to produce 512 of its kind?

Answer 1

`170(2)/(3) hrs`

Step-by-step explanation:

in every 20 minutes the prokaryote divides to produce one of itself .

Mathematically,

20 mins:1 of its kind

x mins :512 of its kind

Where x is the amount of time (in minutes) needed by the prokaryote to produce 512 of its kind.

This implies that,

By cross multiplying we obtain,

`x = 20 * 512 = 10240mins`

We now convert the time in minutes into hours.

Knowing very well that 60 minutes equals an hour, to convert 10240 minutes to hour we divide by 60.

This implies that,

`10240 / 60 = 170 (2)/(3)`