Question

A 600,000-cell bacteria culture is needed for a lab experiment, but you only could purchase 1,000 cells. If the cells double each day, exactly how long will it be before the experiment can be run? Create a model for the bacteria. If the experiment is in seven days, how many cells would be required to purchase today?

Answer 1

Since we are doubling, let's use a base of 2

so 1000 (2)^t = 600,000
2^t = 600
log 2^t = log 600
tlog 2 = log 600
t = log 600/log 2
= appr 9.23 days

number of 7 days
600,000 = n 2^6
n = 600000/2^7 = 4687.5
I would purchase 5000