Question

Exactly 100 bacteria with a generation time of 30 min are introduced into fresh sterile broth at 8am and maintained at an optimum incubation temperature throughout the day. How many bacterian are present at 3pm? How many generation will take place by 5pm the same day?

Answer 1

I'm not a biochemist but I assume from your generation time that 100 bacteria become 200 in 30 minutes. If that isn't right you can quit reading because my answer is wrong. But if I'm right, then from 8 am to 3 pm you go through 6 hours or 12 30-minute segments. That is 2^12(100) = 409,600. Check me out on this. The easy way to check is to go through 4 30-minute segments (from 8 am to 10 am) so that would be 2^4(100) = 1600. And we can see if we start with 100, it goes to 200, then 400, then 800, then 1600 for four generations.

Answer 2

Actually, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. is 7 hours. So it would be 14 generations in those 7 hours.
That makes the answer 1,638,400.
By 5 p.m. that would be 18 generations.

Answer 3

answer is 1,638,400
18 generations original is not included