In a lab experiment, the count of a bacteria doubles every hour.
a)at 1pm, there was 23000 bacteria. How many bacteria will be present at midnight?
I can't seem to get the correct answer.
The answer is 47 104 000 bacteria.
Thanks very much in advance!
Whoops, never mind, I got the answer.
To find the number of bacteria present at midnight, we need to determine the number of doublings that occur from 1 pm to midnight (a span of 11 hours).
Since the number of bacteria doubles every hour, we can set up a simple equation to represent this exponential growth:
Number of bacteria at midnight = Initial count * (Doubling factor) ^ (Number of hours)
Let's break down the steps to calculate the answer:
1. Determine the doubling factor:
Since the count doubles every hour, the doubling factor is 2.
2. Calculate the number of hours from 1 pm to midnight:
There are 11 hours from 1 pm to midnight.
3. Plug the values into the equation:
Number of bacteria at midnight = 23,000 * 2^(11)
Calculating the result:
Number of bacteria at midnight = 23,000 * 2^11
= 23,000 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2
= 23,000 * 2,048
= 47,104,000
Therefore, there would be approximately 47,104,000 bacteria present at midnight.