An amoeba propagates by simple division; each split takes three minutes to complete. When such an amoeba is put into a glass container with a nutrient fluid, the container is full of amoebas in one hour.

How long would it take for the container to be filled if we start with not one amoeba, but two?

You might suspect that starting with twice as many amębę it would take half as long (1/2 hr), but you'd be wrong. Starting with one amęba, after the first three minutes, you have two, which is the starting condition for the second experiment, so it will take 1 hr - 3 min = 60 min - 3 min = 57 min.

Posted by TomM on 2002-06-20 19:36:56