Question

A length of a bacteria enlarged 50,000 times attains a length of5 cm. What is the actual length of the bacteria? If the length isenlarged 20,000 times only, what would be its enlarged length?

Answer 1

The actual length of the bacteria  is 0.00001 cm
if it is enlarged by 20,000 times its length would be 2 cm

Answer 2

Answer:

Proportion states that two ratios or fractions are equal.

As per the statement:

A length of a bacteria enlarged 50,000 times attains a length of 5 cm.

Let the actual length of bacteria be x and enlarged length be y cm.

Here the number of times  the photograph of bacteria was enlarged  & the length of the bacteria are in direct proportion.

$\frac{5}{50000} = \frac{x}{1}$

Simplify:

$x = \frac{1}{10000}$

⇒$x=10^{-4}$

Therefore, the actual length be , $10^{-4}$ cm

Let the length of the bacteria when the photograph of bacteria was enlarged 20000 times be y

$\frac{5}{50000}=\frac{y}{20000}$

By cross multiply we have;

$5 \times 20000 = 50000y$

Divide both sides by 50000 we have;

2 = y

or

y = 2

Therefore, the enlarged length be, 2 cm