If the bacteria is tripling every 10 minutes, that means the "rate of increase" on that period is 200%, so if say the current amount is "c", 200% of "c" is just 2c, so c + 2c is 3c, a tripled amount.
The probability of an event cannot be less than 0 because 0 means it's impossible. The probability of an event cannot be more than 1 because 1 means that it's certain that it will happen. That's why the probability must be between 0 and 1.