Calculate how long it would take a population of 200 million bacterial cells in

Question

Calculate how long it would take a population of 200 million bacterial cells in stationary phase to all die if the decline phase is exponential with 80% of the population dying in 20 minutes. Want to confirm my answer to the last equation: P = (200,000,000)(0.8)t/20 Where P is the population and t is the time in minutes. Set P to whatever threshold of bacterial population is considered to be low enough, and solve for t using logs: P/(200M) = (0.8)t/20 log(P/200M) = log((0.8)t/20) log(P/200M) = (t/20)(log(0.8)) (????)

Explanation / Answer

Ok, maybe I misunderstood you. At this point, it's just pure algebra log(P/200M) is one number log(0.8) is another number Just treat them like numbers and solve for t: t/20 = log(P/200M)/log(0.8) t = 20*log(P/200M)/log(0.8) Plug in whatever number you're using for P and solve. If you're actually looking for a value for P, I unfortunately don't know what that would be.

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