Proliferation

An amoeba propagates by simple division; each split takes three minutes to complete. When such an amoeba is put into a glass container with a nutrient fluid, the container is full of amoebas in one hour. How long would it take for the container to be filled if we start with not one amoeba, but two?


Answer:


Don't rush to say "half an hour!". Think about it.
In the original scenario we are starting with one ameoba. But in three minutes, this will become two ameobae, which then take the remaining 57 minutes of the hour to fill up the container.
Thus, it will take 57 minutes to go from two to full.