Question

Bacteria multiply by division. One bacterium becomes two. Then two divide into four, the four divide into eight, and so on. For a certain strain of bacteria, the time for this division process is one minute. If you put one bacterium in a bottle at 11:00 p.m., by midnight the entire bottle will be full.
1. At what time will the bottle be half full? t realize that 2. Suppose you could be a bacterium in this bottle. At what tim you were running out of space? Explain your response.

Answer 1

Answer:

1) By 11:30pm

2) Shortly before midnight (few minutes to 12:00am)

Explanation:

Since the strain of bacteria takes 1 minute to divide (double its population), and by midnight (12:00am) the entire bottle becomes full, then:

I) Subtract Initial division time from Final division time i.e 12:00 - 11:00 = 1 hour

II) Split 1 hour into two (60minutes makes 1 hour)

I hour/2 = 30 minutes

Definitely, the bottle will be half filled by 11:30pm

2) Once half filled, the rapidly dividing cells reach for the top of the bottle as midnight approaches. By 11:50pm upwards, bottle space must have been running out