MGMAT CAT Question - Multiplying Cells

[contact.sumeshn]

A scientist is studying bacteria whose cell population doubles at constant intervals, at which times each cell in the population divides simultaneously. Four hours from now, immediately after the population doubles, the scientist will destroy the entire sample. How many cells will the population contain when the bacteria is destroyed?

(1) The population just divided and, since the population divided two hours ago, the population has quadrupled, increasing by 3,750 cells.

(2) The population will double to 40,000 cells with one hour remaining until the scientist destroys the sample.

Apologies if this is a dumb question-

Question and statement 1 of the above question has the following phrases
--"at which times each cell in the population divides simultaneously"
--"The population just divided and, since the population divided two hours ago, the population has quadrupled"

Please explain as to why the the question has reference to "division", while the question is actually about cells getting multiplied.

Thanks.

[debmalya.dutta]

Sumesh..what they meant is they increase in number by splitting up
i.e 1 cell divides into 2 after say 1 minute. Hence multiplying the number of cells

However , is the answer A?

[mschwrtz]

(edit)

[debmalya.dutta]

Is this the right approach on this
Statement 1 .
The population just divided and, since the population divided two hours ago, the population has quadrupled, increasing by 3,750 cells.
Suppose population at the end of 2 hours is X
Population at the end of 4 hours is 4X
Hence 3X=3750
This implies 4X(population of at the end of 4hours ) = (4/3)*3,750

From Statement 2
The population will double to 40,000 cells with one hour remaining until the scientist destroys the sample.
This means that the sample doubles every 3 hours .
So at the end of 4 hours , it will still be 40,000

Is this the right way of doing this ?

[mschwrtz]

Oops, no debmalya.dutta was right. It's A. 2 is not sufficient because it doesn't tell us the interval. If the population is 40K one hour before it is destroyed, it might be 40K an hour later, or 80K, or 160K, etc., depending on bow frequently it divides.