BRAINCAKEInterpreting Graphs 9
Some biological quantities cover a very wide range of values, for example the number of bacteria in a culture, which can increase from 10 to 10 000 000 cells. These are often plotted on a logarithmic scale.
On a log scale each major division represents a tenfold increase: 1, 10, 100, 1000 and so on. The divisions are equally spaced even though the values are not.
The values may be written as powers of ten, for example 103 = 1000, or as log10 values, for example log10 1000 = 3.
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Key terms in this lesson
- binary fission
- The method of asexual cell division in prokaryotes, in which the circular DNA and plasmids replicate before the cell divides in two.
- exponential growth
- Growth in which the rate of increase is proportional to the size of the population, so that the population doubles in each successive time period.
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All 33 lessons in Biodiversity · All AQA AS-level Biology topics