5: More exponent busting

Exponent busting on your own

So, give that a try on your own.

Let’s say the oysters were infected by a single Vibrio at 3 pm, and by the next day at 3pm, when they were harvested, there were 10,000 bacteria per oyster. Assuming exponential growth, how fast was the population doubling?


Start with the basic equation for exponential growth:

Nt = N0 * 2n

3 o'clockwhere n means the final number of bacteria.

Here are some hints if you’re not sure what to do:




You might have noticed that I haven’t given you a formula to figure out the doubling time. You could write a formula based on the steps above, but it would be hard to remember, whereas if you understand logs and you follow the exponential growth equation, you WILL get the right answer. Ergo, no formula.