Question

If a 1:600 dilution of a test compound kills a standard population of Staphylococcus aureus in 10 minutes but not 5 minutes while a 1:60 dilution of phenol kills the population in the same time, what is the phenol coefficient of the test compound?
A.1
B. 5
C. 10
D. 50

Answer 1

Dear respected friend,

According to the above given data a dilution of 1/600 is a testing phenolic compound which is applied towards a standard set population of Staphylococcus aureus which showed "growth killing factor" in a period of 10 minutes but didn't show any death in a period of 5 minutes.

The same dilution of 1/60 dilution of a testing phenolic compound is applied towards the same population killed the population in a same time range of 10 minute interval and not in a 5 minute interval shows a following phenolic coefficient that is;

To calculate the phenolic coefficient the effectiveness of the starting testing compound with a dilution of 1/600 is pretty much having a lesser coefficient value when compared to 1/60 dilution, in terms of effectiveness the dilution of "1/60" does a same "impact" to eliminate the standard population of staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, to calculate the final coefficient the one with lesser dilution and same impact is to be calculated by division of higher dilution with same impact that is;

$\boxed{\bf{\underline{Standard \: \: Test \: \: Compound \: \: Phenol \: \: Dilution = \dfrac{First \: \: Initial \: \: Dilution}{Second \: \: Final \: \: Dilution}}}}$

$\bf{\therefore \quad Phenol \: \: Dilution = \dfrac{\dfrac{1}{60}}{\dfrac{1}{600}}}$

$\bf{\therefore \quad Phenol \: \: Dilution = \dfrac{600}{60}}$

$\boxed{\bf{\underline{\therefore \quad Phenol \: \: Dilution = 10}}}$

The required Phenol dilution coefficient is about 10 that means it'll take the dilution factors to act on the coefficient of Phenol as "10".