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3 Equations For Growth Curves

The document provides three equations to model bacterial growth over time: 1) Nt = 2n * N0, where Nt is the number of bacteria at time t, N0 is the initial number, and n is the number of generations. 2) K = n/t, where K is the growth rate and equals the number of generations over time. 3) By combining the first two equations, the third equation allows solving for K: Log2(Nt/N0) / t = K, where K is the growth rate.

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Martina Micic
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46 views3 pages

3 Equations For Growth Curves

The document provides three equations to model bacterial growth over time: 1) Nt = 2n * N0, where Nt is the number of bacteria at time t, N0 is the initial number, and n is the number of generations. 2) K = n/t, where K is the growth rate and equals the number of generations over time. 3) By combining the first two equations, the third equation allows solving for K: Log2(Nt/N0) / t = K, where K is the growth rate.

Uploaded by

Martina Micic
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

In the growth curves simulation you will need to do a little algebra, and it sounds like you all need

a little
help with this. I hope this can clarify the issue.

The first problem where you need to figure out an equation to determine the number of bacteria at a
given time point or after a given number of generations. Lets define all of the variables first:

Nt is the number of cells at the end of the growth period, time stands for time.

N0 is the initial number of microbes present at time 0.

n is the number of generations that has passed.

Since we are trying to find the number of cells at a certain time point, N t should be on the left side of the
equals sign. The number of initial bacteria, N 0 should be on the right side. Now, because bacteria
double every generation, we need to multiply number of cells by 2 and repeat this process for every
generation. For example, if we started at time 0 with 5 cells, then after 1 generation there would be
5X2 cells, or 10 cells. If there were 2 generations, then it would be 5X2X2 or 20 cells present. A ‘short
hand’ mathematical equation for doubling in number repeatedly is 2 n where n is number of generations
or number of times the cells will double. Thus, our equation should be N t= 2n X N0. We can use this
equation to determine the number of bacteria present after any number of generations.

The second equation will deal with K, which is the growth rate. On the graph once you have plotted the
data as logs, and on a log axis, it will appear as a straight line. K is essentially the slope of that line. The
formula for the slope of a line is slope = rise/run, or in this case, k = generations / time or k=n/t. Once
we know k, we can use it to determine how many generations have occurred after any given amount of
time.
The third equation you will need combines the first two equations together. This will allow us to have
one equation that, by rearranging the equation, will allow us to solve for any of the other variables.
Labster will want you to solve it for k, so that is what I am demonstrating.

Equation 1 is k=n/t

Equation 2 is Nt = N0 X 2n

The only common variable is n, so let’s rearrange eq 1 to solve for n: n= k X t

Then plug that into equation 2 for n: Nt = N 0 X 2(k*t)

Now let’s start to isolate k on one side of the equation: begin by dividing each side by No, which will
give:

Nt/No = 2(k * t)

To get rid of the power on the right side, we need to take the log 2 of both sides.

Log2(Nt/No) = k * t

Finally divide both sides by t and you get : Log(Nt/No) / t = k

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