Question

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?

Answer 1

16 cells

Step-by-step 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.