Bacterium By Brian Archambault On October 7, a scientist named Dr.

Hanson was working with a strain of bacteria trying to figure out why they multiplied exactly every 30 minutes over and over again. Right now he is collecting data for research. Ive got to get this done soon, he said. I have many experiments to run anyway. What I need to do is observe them multiplying which is hard to do because well they only multiply every 30 minutes, and I have much to do and lunch around.now. An hour later Dr. Hanson realizes that he had not frozen the bacteria like he was supposed to, so he writes a formula to find out how many bacteria he would have if they doubled every 30 minutes for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes. He figures out that n=b*z^(t/d). He also writes a guide for later use: 1*2^(90/30)=8 or 1x2x2x2 since 1x2=2 and then 2x2 =4 then 4x2=8 so he now has 8 bacteria.
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You use the formula to figure how many times to double the first number. In this case, its 3 times. ^ means that the next number is a exponent. For example, 1x2(90/30)= 6 so 1x2x2x2=8 Then you take the starting amount (1) and double it the number of times you got from the formula (3). For example, 1x2=2, 2x4 = 8 Repeat till you have done it the number of times (1x2=2 2x2=4 4x2=8) You could alter t or d or the starting bacteria b or even the amount they multiply which would be z.

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n= b*z^ (t/d) So Dr. Hanson now has 8 bacteria. That could have been horrible! I might have messed up my results! he thought. Ill just try again later, and he sat down to his peaceful lunch. When he arrived at work again, he said, Well, you know what? We actually have other things to do today. Lets do it tomorrow. Later at the end of the day, he asked his assistant, Could you lock up for me? When the assistant answered yes, he walked home for a joyful nights rest. However, his assistant forgot to freeze the bacteria over night, and in the morning the scientist looked though the microscope and saw all of the bacteria. He thought, Oh no! Not this again! How long where they out?

Hmmmmmthe clock said 12:00 when we left them out and its now 5:20, so thats 480 minutes. Lets use the formula to find out exactly how many there are so I dont waste anything. Lets see: 1*2^ (480/30) =16 so 1x2 =2, 2x2=4, 2x4=8, 8x2=16, 16x2=32, 32x2=64, then 64x2 =128, 128x2=256, 256x2=512, 512x2=1024, 1024x2=2048, 2048x2=4096, 4096x2=8192, 8192x2=16384, 16384x2=32768, 32768x2=65536 or 1x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2. In other words 2^16. Well, so we have 65536 bacteria! Wonderful thing I had a camera installed! I think thats all we need. We can clean up now. Maybe next time Ill use a formula to begin with because doubling got a little tiring and tedious!