The doubling period of a bacterial population is 10 minutes.

Question

The doubling period of a bacterial population is 10 minutes. At time t=80 minutes, the bacterial population was 60000. What was the initial population at time? Find the size of the bacterial population after 5 hours.

Answer 1

5 hours =5(60)=300 minutes

t minutes

0 234,375=initial amount=p

10 468750 =2p

20 937,500=4p

30 1.875k

40 3.75k

50 7.5k

60 15k=64p

70 30k

80 60k= 256p=p(2^8)

300=p(2^30)=234,375(2^30)= 2.5165824x 10^14 after 5 hours