Sheet # 64/Diatoms

Name: _____________________ Date_____________

 Diatoms are one-celled plants that live in the shells and are a primary source of food in the sea. They produce oxygen by means of photosynthesis, and because of their numbers they produce enormous amount of it.

Diatoms reproduce by binary fission, which means that a plant splits into two halves, each half becoming a new diatom.



1) If a diatom divides every 6 hours, how many diatoms would result from one diatom after one day? two days? three days?
















2) How long would it take for there to be 1000 diatoms? 1 million diatoms? 1 billion diatoms?






























Answers for sheet # 64 (Diatoms)

1) 16 diatoms in a day. 256 diatoms in two days. 4096 diatoms in three days.


2) about 2.5 days to get to 1000 diatoms. about 5 days to get to 1 million diatoms and 7.5 days to get to one billion diatoms.