A population of bacteria is doubling every four hours. At noon there are $600$ bacteria. If this rate continues, how many bacteria will be present at midnight, twelve hours later?
To solve this problem, I need to figure out how many times the population of bacteria will double in twelve hours. I know that it doubles every four hours, so in twelve hours it will double three times. That means the population will be multiplied by $2^3 = 8$. So if there are $600$ bacteria at noon, at midnight there will be $600 \times 8 = 4800$ bacteria. 