Question

Suppose there is one member of a particular kind of organism in a culture dish, which doubles itself in one hour through asexual reproduction. Work out the number of members of that kind of organism which will be present in the culture dish after ten hours. Such a colony of individuals arising from one parent is called a “clone”.

Answer 1

Find out the number of members of a particular kind of organism in a culture dish after ten hours, given that the organism doubles itself every hour through asexual reproduction, we can use the concept of exponential growth.

Here's a step-by-step explanation:

1. Initial Condition: We start with 1 organism.
2. Doubling Time: The organism doubles every hour.
3. Total Time: We need to find the number of organisms after 10 hours.

The formula to calculate the number of organisms after a certain time, given that they double every hour, is:

N(t) = N₀ ×2^t

Where:

• N(t) is the number of organisms at time t.
• N_0​ is the initial number of organisms.
• t is the time in hours.
• 2^t represents the doubling factor for each hour.

Given:

• N₀ = 1 (initial number of organisms)
• t = 10 hours

Let's plug the values into the formula:

N (10) = 1 × 2¹⁰

Calculate 2¹⁰

2¹⁰ = 1024

So the number of organisms after 10 hours will be:

N (10) = 1 × 1024 = 1024

Therefore, after ten hours, there will be 1024 members of that kind of organism in the culture dish. This colony of individuals arising from one parent is called a "clone."