Once upon a time, at precisely 11:00 pm, a single bacterium was placed into a nutrient-filled bottle in a laboratory. The bacterium immediately began gobbling up nutrients and after just one minute-making the time 11:01 pm-it had grown so much that it divided into two bacteria. These two ate until, one minute later, they each divided into two bacteria, so that there were a total of four bacteria in the bottle at 11:02 pm. The four bacteria grew and divided into a total of eight at 11:03 pm, sixteen bacteria at 11:04 pm, and so on. All seemed fine and the bacteria kept on eating happily and doubling their number every minute, until the "midnight catastrophe." The catastrophe was this: At the stroke of 12:00 am, midnight, the bottle became completely full of bacteria, with no nutrients remaining-which meant that every single one of the bacteria was suddenly doomed to death. We now turn to the important questions as we seek to draw lessons from the tragic demise of the bacterial colony. The catastrophe occurred because the bottle became completely full at 12:00 am, midnight. At what time was the bottle half full?
Belle G.
03/26/15