) How many cells can be grown in a 5 mL culture using minimal medium before the medium exhausts the carbon?

Answer:

Explanation:

The question is not complete. Remaining part of the question is as follows - Minimal growth medium for bacteria such as E. coli includes various salts with  characteristic concentrations in the mM range and a carbon source. The carbon source is  typically glucose and it is used at 0.5% (a concentration of 0.5 g/100 mL). For nitrogen,  minimal medium contains ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) with a concentration of 0.1g/100 mL

How many cells can be grown in a 5 mL culture using minimal medium before the medium exhausts the carbon?

Solution -

We will first find the mass concentration of 0.5 g/100 mL of solution.

gram per ml of glucose

The chemical formula of glucose is

The molecular weight of glucose molecule is grams per mole

Now, we will find the number of moles of glucose in a 5 ml medium -

mole

The number of carbon atom in each glucose molecule is equal to six, thus, number of minimal carbon mole is equal to

mole

Number of carbon atoms is equal to

Carbons

One bacteria has carbon molecule.Thus, ml medium will have bacteria