BRAINCAKEExponential Growth
Bacteria reproduce by binary fission: one cell divides into two. The time taken for a population to double is the generation time (doubling time). Under ideal conditions it can be as short as 20 minutes for E. coli.
If every cell divides once per generation, the population doubles each time: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. This is exponential growth. After n generations:
N = N0 × 2n
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All 30 lessons in Bacteria and Disease · All Edexcel A-level Biology topics