Population Puzzle

A bacterium matures in one minute and then divides into two child bacteria. One minute later, the two children each divide again, then their children divide a minute later, etc.

At t = 0 one bacterium is placed in a vessel . After one hour it is observed that the vessel has just completely filled with bacteria.

After how many minutes had the bacteria half filled the volume of that vessel?


The answer is 59.

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2 solutions

Well the solution is quite easy !!

If the population fills the vessel in 60 minutes then one minute before the population should have to be half of the complete population .

Hence , the answer is 59 minutes.

Vijay Kumar
Feb 2, 2016

At first it is 1 then 2 and then 4... it clearly shows that at it is half filled before the last minute when the jar is going to be filled completely with it.

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