A culture of bacteria doubles every hour. If there are 500 bacteria at the beginning, how many bacte | MathCelebrity Forum

A culture of bacteria doubles every hour. If there are 500 bacteria at the beginning, how many bacte

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A culture of bacteria doubles every hour. If there are 500 bacteria at the beginning, how many bacteria will there be after 9 hours?

Assumptions and givens;
  • h is the number of hours.
  • B(h) is the number of bacteria at time h
  • B(0) is the starting bacteria amount
  • Doubling means multiplying by 2, so we have:

B(h) = B(0) * 2^h

We want h = 9, so we have:
B(9) = 500 * 2^9
B(9) = 500 * 512
B(9) = 256,000
 
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