Resonant Constellation

More fun with estimation wackiness

by Plamadude30k on Oct.21, 2009, under Math, Science

Today, I got interested in e. coli. The reasons are rather strange, but suffice to say, it basically popped into my head all of a sudden. I looked up some basic details, and was surprised at the doubling time of the species. I then did some fascinating calculations which lead to some rather surprising results. For example:
Assuming that the entire mass of the universe was made into e. coli, there would be about 5*10^70 e. coli, which is surprisingly few. Assuming further that these e. coli are in one big clump, they would fill a sphere of approximately 10 cubic parsecs. Starting with one e. coli and assuming the typical generational rate of one generation every 40 minutes, e. coli could, in theory, given perfect (and non-physical conditions), reach this number (corresponding to an entire e. coli universe) in only 6.5 days. My friend Ian postulates that, since it supposedly took the Christian God 7 days to make the universe, that e. coli may actually be more powerful than God. Incredible.

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