Biology Forum › Microbiology › How many bacteria?
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- March 5, 2007 at 2:13 pm #7103
Miss_MeParticipantI was wondering, if a bacteria organism divides once every 20 minutes, how long would it take to produce 2,000,000 (or 2 x 10^6) bacteria cells?
I’m confused on how i’d work this out because i’m getting a sense of there’s too many numbers to handle, as each cell divides in 2 every 20 minutes.
please help!
thanks!
- March 5, 2007 at 3:31 pm #69729DarbyParticipant
The easiest way to work this out is with a table, putting the time intervals next to the total number of cells. You won’t need that big a table, either…
0 minutes – 1 cell
20 min – 2
40 – 4……. - March 20, 2007 at 1:31 pm #70283BelanaParticipant
x(final) = x(start)*2^n
n = t (time needed) / T (generation period)
2000000 = 1*2^n
log 2000000 = n . log 2
n = 20,93((20 min = 1/3 h))
20,93 = t / (1/3)
20,93 = 3tt = 6,97h = cca 6h 58 min
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