Assuming you begin with a single bacterial cell that has doubling time of 15 minutes, how many cells would you find at the end of one hour?

Question

Ramiro Olsen

Biology

31 July, 19:16

Assuming you begin with a single bacterial cell that has doubling time of 15 minutes, how many cells would you find at the end of one hour?

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Answers (1)

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Lina Howe · Answer 1

16 cells

Explanation:

According to the given information, the generation time of the bacterial cell is 15 minutes. This means that the bacterial cell would have a total of 60/15 = four divisions (1 hour = 60 minutes) in one hour. A division in a single bacterial cell produces two new bacterial cells. If both the newly formed bacterial cells enter the cell division, a total of four cells will be formed. Likewise, if all the newly formed bacterial cells enter the process of cell division, a total of 2^4 = 16 cells will be formed by the end of four consecutive cell divisions.