Question

Bacteria culture doubles every 20 minutes. After two hours there are 28800 bacteria. What was the initial amount?

Answer 1

Answer:

450 bacteria.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find this, we can set up an exponential equation as shown:

$28800 = a (2)^{\frac{120}{20} }$

**'a' being the initial value

** '2' representing the culture doubling

Simplify the equation down:

$28800 = a (2)^{6}$

$28800 = 64a\\a = 450.$

Therefore, the initial amount of bacteria was 450.