A single bacteria can reproduce by binary fission (splitting into two) every 20 minutes. If a petri dish starts with 10 bacteria, select how many bacteria will be present after 2 hours (6 cycles of reproduction).

A single bacteria can reproduce by binary fission (splitting into two) every 20 minutes. If a petri dish starts with 10 bacteria, select how many bacteria will be present after 2 hours (6 cycles of reproduction).
A. 100 
B. 160 
C. 640 
D. 1200

This Question has 1 answers.

Given:
  1. Initial number of bacteria = 10
  2. Reproduction time = every 20 minutes
  3. Total time = 2 hours = 120 minutes
Since bacteria reproduce every 20 minutes:

Number of cycles $=\frac{120}{20} = 6$

Each bacterium splits into 2. So after each cycle, the number of bacteria doubles. That means after n cycles, the population multiplies by $2^n$ .

Hence final count of bacteria would be $ = 10 \times 2^6 = 640$