Question

An experiment stain of bacteria is being used to treat an oil spill. A colony of 2^13 cells will be sufficient to ocean up the spill. If the colony is started with a single cell, and cells increase in number by splitting every 15 minutes, in how many hours will the colony reach the desired size?

Answer 1

the colony doubles 4 times every hour. So, after t hours, it has reached 2^(4t) cells. Clearly 4t = 13

Answer 2

3.5 hours