The bacterium E. coli often causes illness among people who eat infected food. Suppose that five E. coli bacteria in a batch of ground beef begins doubling every 10 minutes. Show all work leading to your
answers.

a. Complete the table below that represents the number of bacteria after x minutes. (Assume no
bacteria die.)
Number of minutes 0 10/20/__/ __/ __/ __/ __/
Number of time periods, x 0 / 1/__ /__ /__ /__ /__/
Number of bacteria, y __/__/__/ __ /__ /__ /__/

b. Explain how to write an equation that will allow us to find the number of bacteria after any number of minutes.

c. Write the equation below:


d. How many bacteria will there be after two hours? Show your work.