The bacterium E. coli often causes illness among people who eat infected food. Suppose that five E. coli bacteria in a batch of ground beef begins doubling every 10 minutes. Show all work leading to your
answers.
a. Complete the table below that represents the number of bacteria after x minutes. (Assume no
bacteria die.)
Number of minutes 0 10 20
Number of time periods, x 0 1
Number of bacteria, y
b. Explain how to write an equation that will allow us to find the number of bacteria after any
number of minutes.
c. Write the equation below:

d. How many bacteria will there be after two hours? Show your work.