We will also investigate logarithmic functions, which are closely related to exponential functions. In this chapter, we will explore exponential functions, which can be used for, among other things, modeling growth patterns such as those found in bacteria. We see that the single bacterial cell leads to over one thousand bacterial cells in just ten hours! And if we were to extrapolate the table to twenty-four hours, we would have over 16 million! Table 1 shows the number of bacterial cells at the end of each subsequent hour. 16įor simplicity’s sake, suppose we begin with a culture of one bacterial cell that can divide every hour. Unlike humans and other complex organisms, the time required to form a new generation of bacteria is often a matter of minutes or hours, as opposed to days or years. When conditions are right, bacteria can reproduce very quickly. While some bacteria can cause illness, many are healthy and even essential to the body.īacteria commonly reproduce through a process called binary fission, during which one bacterial cell splits into two. But that is no reason to feel bad about yourself. In fact, the bacterial cells in your body at any given moment outnumber your own cells. They are bacteria, and they are not only on your skin, but in your mouth, nose, and even your intestines. If you could look closely enough, you would see hundreds of thousands of microscopic organisms.
Focus in on a square centimeter of your skin.
0 kommentar(er)
