Bacteria: Math Lesson

Wrap-up

Once you get the hang of exponents, long numbers become much easier to handle. Using scientific notation, you can compress long trains of zeros into neat base 10 exponents. Even more amazing are the exponential patterns in bacterial growth, where the numbers start growing slowly, but the growth soon picks up pace and shoots up like a rocket. That’s exponential growth for you.

In this lesson you:

• Followed the growth of a bacterial colony on a line graph
• Matched large numbers with their names
• Looked at how exponents work
• Wrote large numbers using scientific notation (put those exponents to use)
• Observed exponential growth

On your own:

• Practice writing long numbers using scientific notation.
• Practice calculating exponents using a variety of bases and powers.
• Look for patterns in exponential growth.
• Look at other examples of exponential growth, like human population growth, Ponzi schemes (pyramid schemes), and Internet traffic growth.
• Explore examples of exponential decay, which has the same pattern as exponential growth, except it’s flipped: numbers start decreasing quickly but the decrease slows down towards the end. Some examples are: radioactive decay and a cup of tea cooling at room temperature.