The population of a bacteria culture doubles in number every 12 minutes. The ratio of the number of bacteria at the end of 1 hour to the number of bacteria at the beginning of that hour is
A
8:1
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B
16:1
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C
32:1
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D
60:1
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Solution
The correct option is C32:1
If a number is multiplies repeatedly by 2 for n times then the last result will be 2n×number.
Let the number of bacteria is a. The number of bacteria doubles every 12 minutes, which means that it doubles 5 times in an hour. Therefore, (2)(2)(2)(2)(2)a=a×25 =32a at the end of the hour. Thus, the ratio of the number of bacteria at the end of 1 hour to the number of bacteria at the beginning of that hour is 32aa=32:1.