Question

A bacteria population is going exponentially with a growth factor of 1/6 each hour. By what growth factor does the population change each half an hour select all that apply?

Answer 1

Answer:

The bacteria population will change with a growth factor of 1/12 for every half an hour or 1/12 per 30 minutes. (I don't know what the options are, but anything related to the answer I gave should be right.)

Step-by-step explanation:

Simple mathematics should get you the right answer. Here we are dealing with a fraction in a fraction. The first scenario should look like this: 1/6 / 1. Basically, that looks like one-sixth over one. Obviously, if we divide 1/6 by 1, we would get 1/6 itself again and we want to know what growth factor the population changes by for every half an hour. There are 30 minutes in half an hour and 60 minutes in one hour. Let's use the simplified terms to our advantage. Now, our first scenario should look like this: 1/6 / 60. Looks better now doesn't it? (Check the linked image to see the full scenario and how I did it in this next part.) For me, I divided 60 by 30 to get the scale factor, which is 2, then I divide 2 by 1/6 to get 1/12. Finally, we have 1/12 per half an hour! If I am wrong, please let me know and I hope this helps! :D