Chapter 15, Problem 14PS

Interpreting Data Because bacteria divide by binary fission, their population size doubles every generation. Suppose the generation time for bacteria that cause food poisoning (for example, Staphylococcus aureus or Salmonella) is 30 minutes at room temperature. The number of cells in a population can be calculated using this formula.

Initial number of cells × 2^{(Number of generations)} = Population size

For example, if a dish of potato salad is contaminated with 10 bacteria, the bacterial population after 1 hour (two generations) is 10 × 2² = 40. Fill in the table below to show how the bacterial population increases when a dish of potato salad is left on the kitchen counter after dinner.

Time (Hours)	Number of Generations	Number of Bacteria
0	0	10
1	2	40
2	4
4	8
6	12
8	16
10	20
12	24

Why does the rate of increase change over time? Describe how a graph of the data would look.