16Hit1600
Advanced MathVery hardTripling period

Advanced Math practice question

A colony of bacteria triples in size every 2 hours. If it starts with 100 cells, how many cells will it have after 4 hours?

Answer: 900

Four hours contains two 2-hour periods, so the colony triples twice: 100 × 3 × 3 = 900.

Common wrong answers

If you answered 300
300 is after ONE tripling — that's at 2 hours, not 4.
If you answered 1200
1,200 is 100 × 3 × 4, treating the tripling as happening once per hour times... it triples once every 2 hours: two triplings, 100 × 9.
If you answered 8100
8,100 is 100 × 3⁴, tripling every hour instead of every 2 hours.

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