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Cell Biology

Calculating bacterial growth, and testing antiseptics and antibiotics

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Colony and clear-zone areas from πr², bacterial numbers after a run of divisions, and the agar plate method for testing antibiotics and antiseptics, zones of inhibition and the control disc.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

How is the cross-sectional area of a circular bacterial colony calculated?

Numbers

A clear area around a disc has a diameter of 10 mm. Calculate its area to one decimal place.

Key term

How is the number of divisions worked out from a growth time and a mean division time?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How is the cross-sectional area of a circular bacterial colony calculated?

    Model answer

    Using πr², where r is the radius of the colony.

  2. 2

    A colony has a radius of 6 mm. Calculate its cross-sectional area to the nearest whole number.

    Model answer

    113 mm².

  3. 3

    A clear area around a disc has a diameter of 10 mm. Calculate its area to one decimal place.

    Model answer

    78.5 mm², because the radius is 5 mm.

  4. 4

    How is the number of divisions worked out from a growth time and a mean division time?

    Model answer

    Divide the total time by the mean division time.

  5. 5

    One bacterium divides every 20 minutes. How many bacteria are there after 2 hours?

    Model answer

    64, because there are 6 divisions and 2⁶ is 64.

  6. 6

    A culture starts with 20 bacteria and the mean division time is 25 minutes. How many bacteria are present after 100 minutes?

    Model answer

    320, because 4 divisions give 20 × 16.

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