A colony of bacteria is grown so that the population increases exponential with time. At the end of 3 hours there are 10,000 bacteria. At the end of 5 hours there are 40,000 bacteria. How many bacteria were present intially
40,000 /10,000=4x increase in bacterial count in 5-3=2 hours, therefore the exponential rate of inrease is=sqrt(4)=2 - 1 =1 X 100=100%.
Since the population doubles every hour, we therefore have in 3 hours:
10,000 / (2^3) =1,250 The initial population of bacterial colony.