A culture of a certain bacteria doubles every hour
To determine how many bacteria will be present after a certain amount of time, you can use the concept of exponential growth.
Exponential growth is a phenomenon where a quantity (in this case, the number of bacteria) increases rapidly over time. In this specific situation, the bacteria population doubles every hour. This means that every hour, the number of bacteria will be multiplied by 2.
To calculate the number of bacteria after a specific amount of time, follow these steps:
1. Determine the starting population: Let's say the starting population is 100 bacteria.
2. Determine the time in hours: Let's say we want to calculate the number of bacteria after 3 hours.
3. Apply the doubling rule: Since the bacteria double every hour, after 1 hour, there will be 2 times the initial population. After 2 hours, there will be 2 times the population after 1 hour, and so on.
4. Calculate the final population: Apply the doubling rule for the given number of hours. In this example, after 3 hours, there will be 2 * 2 * 2 = 8 times the initial population. So, the final population after 3 hours would be 8 * 100 = 800 bacteria.
By repeating this process for any given starting population and time period, you can calculate the number of bacteria at a specific point in time.