[Guest]

hello..i hope you will all like this TRIVIA of mine..

So, here's a scientist w/ a jar. He put in it a bacterium that every second multiplies or doubles..<for example, after a second the bacteria bacame 2..a second after it bacame 4,a second after, w/c makes it 3 seconds,it became 8...and so on..>

after 60 seconds,the empty jar became full <of bacteria.>

here's my question....on what SECOND did the jar get HALF FILLED????

[bonanova]

59th

[Guest]

59th

and what second will the mass become as large as Cedar Rapids, Iowa?

Edited July 14, 2009 by Brighterthan1000rocks

[Guest]

59th

I mean seriously can people stop asking this question, i don't know how many damn times i have seen this one, maybe it was a petri e dish or a beaker or a saucer or whatever its always the same answer. COME ON PEOPLE!!

[Guest]

heheh..i know this would be a piece of cake to all of you...

[Guest]

but i guess Brighterthan1000rocks and Bonanova are nice..tnx for being nice...

[Guest]

So simple - after 59 seconds. So that by next second

Jar will be filled.

Edited July 14, 2009 by Anantham

[Guest]

Technically, I would say that the soonest the jar could be half full was on the 60th second, since the problem states "after 60 seconds,the empty jar became full", so it could not be half-full on the 59th second, since it would then be full on the 60th second, which does not make that statement true, since 60 is equal to 60, but 61 is after it and thus my answer is that the jar was half-full at the 60th second. But, I also consider that due to the wording, any value greater than 59 is acceptable.

Edited July 14, 2009 by mindwarp

[Guest]

I like this puzzle. It's a good one. I tried to explain it to my GF once before but she wasn't grasping it.

It was in NDS game Prof Layton and the Curious Village (great game) but worded a little differently. I think it was somehting along the lines of "if you start with double the amount of bacteria, how long did it take to fill the jar?"

Nice puzzle, keeps you thinking if you haven't heard it before *thumbs up*

[Guest]

I believe the jar is half EMPTY after the 59th second...

[Guest]

59th is only correct if you make the assumption tnat the jar is precisely the right size to exactly hold the last doubling.

[Guest]

its too easy

59th second

[Guest]

you all overlooked the fact that the gas the bacteria exhume exerts a pressure of .000001798pa/bacterium on the walls of the jar which is presumably made of a vinyl material with a bulk modulus of 19 GPa resulting in the jar's expanding and increasing the surface area onto which the bacteria can stick and after you plug theese simple facts into a little bit of differential geometrical history, you will see that genious arbee here actually stumped you all and the correct answer is in fact the e^4.084 or aproximately the 59.44th second. Well done arbee!

Edited July 14, 2009 by sparx1

[Guest]

Welcome to the boards, arbee. If you haven't done so already, please read the sticky in the red box titled "Important: READ BEFORE POSTING", especially the part about searching before posting. If you perform a search for the keyword bacteria, you'll find that this riddle has already been posted.