I am submitting agian, I am not sure the answer someone gave sounds correct.
We are learning about exponents. A type of bacteria reproduces by splitting in two every thirty minutes. How many bacteria will there be after 4 hours if there are 2 bacteria to begin with?
2
4
8 = 1st hour
16
32 = 2nd hour
64
128 = 3rd hour
256
512 = 4th hour
Thank you Ms. Sue, I was not sure if it was 256 or 512.
You're welcome, Kam.
To find the number of bacteria after 4 hours, we need to determine how many times the bacteria will split in two within that time period.
Given that the bacteria splits in two every 30 minutes, we can divide the 4-hour time period into intervals of 30 minutes. Since there are 60 minutes in an hour, there are 4 hours × 60 minutes/hour = 240 minutes in total.
Therefore, within 4 hours, there are 240 minutes ÷ 30 minutes/bacteria split = 8 bacteria splits.
Starting with 2 bacteria, each split doubles the number of bacteria. So, after 8 splits, the number of bacteria will be 2^8 = 256.
Therefore, there will be 256 bacteria after 4 hours if there are 2 bacteria to begin with.