The population of a bacteria culture doubles every 2 minutes. Approximately how many minutes will it take for the population to grow from 1,000 to 50,000 bacteria  Choices: A) 10 B) 12 C) 14 D) 16 E) 18

Rationale: "the question basically asks how many minutes it takes for a population to increase by factor 50 ( 50,000 / 1,000 = 50 ) . now you know that every two minutes the population doubles , i . e . is multiplied by 2 . so the equation becomes : 2 ^ x > = 50 , where x represents the number of times the population doubles . a lot of people remember that 2 ^ 10 = 1,024 . hence , 2 ^ 6 = 64 , i . e . the population has to double 6 times . since it takes the population 2 minutes to double once it takes 6 * 2 minutes = 12 minutes to double nine times . thus , solution b = 12 is correct ."
Answer: B