A microbiologist inoculates a growth medium with 1,000 bacterial cells/ml. If the generation time of the species is 30 minutes, how long will it be before the culture contains more than 10,000 cells/ml?

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The bacterial population doubles every 30 minutes. Starting with 1,000 cells/ml, it will take 4 generations (2 hours) to exceed 10,000 cells/ml (1,000 -> 2,000 -> 4,000 -> 8,000 -> 16,000).

A Microbiologist Inoculates a Growth Medium with 1,000 Bacterial Cells/ml