Question

1. A bacterial colony starts with 250 cells and over a span of 12 hours multiplies into 3,546,000 cells.

a. Find the number of generations.

b. Find the generation time.

c. How many bacteria would there be after 24 hours?

I have no idea how to calculate this problem can you break it down and simplify this as much as possible i don't want just the answer i need to understand what the process is! THank you

Answer 1

As we know bacteria divide by binary fission so the one bacterial cell form two cell. Then these two cell grow and act as parent cell and divide again . Now as in case of this question the population of bacteria increase upto 3546000 in 12 hours it means they require 12*60= 720 minutes. Now from hare we can calculate the generation time. In 720 minutes to reach upto this population bacteria multiply about 16 times so

16 divisions require 720 minutes therefore 1 division require 720/16= 45 minutes so the generation time is 45 minutes.The number of division calculated by multiplying the bacterial populations by 2. The population of bacteria face competition in environment so the actual population is always less then the calculated population. In 24 hours the 31 population of bacteria is divided and 32th generation grow so the total population after 24 hours is 500^31.