An Agar Plate for Counting Colonies and Maximizing Statistical Validity

Question

An agar plate for counting colonies and maximizing statistical validity should ideally contain
A) 1 to 100 colonies.
B) 50 to 100 colonies.
C) 30 to 300 colonies.
D) 100 to 1000 colonies.

Accepted Answer

A plate with 30 to 300 colonies provides a large enough sample size to ensure statistical validity while avoiding overgrowth, which can lead to inaccurate results. A plate with fewer than 30 colonies may not be representative of the entire population, while a plate with more than 300 colonies can be difficult to accurately count and result in inaccurate counts.