If a food product contains 10,000,000 microbes per gram and experiences a 99.9999 percent kill rate, how many microbes will survive?

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To determine the number of surviving microbes, it's essential to understand what a 99.9999 percent kill rate indicates. This means that 99.9999 percent of the microbes will be eliminated, and only a very tiny fraction will survive.

Let's break down the calculation:

  1. The initial number of microbes per gram is 10,000,000.

  2. A 99.9999 percent kill rate signifies that 0.0001 percent of the microbes will remain.

  3. To calculate the percentage that survives, convert the kill rate to a survival rate:

  • Survival Rate = 100% - Kill Rate = 100% - 99.9999% = 0.0001%.
  1. Now, calculate the number of surviving microbes:
  • Surviving Microbes = Initial Microbes × Survival Rate

  • Surviving Microbes = 10,000,000 × 0.000001 (which is 0.0001% expressed as a decimal).

  • Surviving Microbes = 10,000,000 × 0.000001 = 10.

Thus, after the application of the kill rate, the number of microbes that survive is 10. This highlights

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