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AQA A-level Biology inheritance

The first generation of a population of fruit flies had 50 females.
Calculate how many female fruit flies would be produced from this
population in the fifth generation.
You can assume:
each female produces 400 offspring each generation
half the offspring produced each generation are female
there is no immigration or emigration
no flies die before reproducing.
Show your working
(I am struggling with this question so if someone could answer it with step-by-step working out it would be appreciated, thank you )
Original post by alishba1234
The first generation of a population of fruit flies had 50 females.
Calculate how many female fruit flies would be produced from this
population in the fifth generation.
You can assume:
each female produces 400 offspring each generation
half the offspring produced each generation are female
there is no immigration or emigration
no flies die before reproducing.
Show your working
(I am struggling with this question so if someone could answer it with step-by-step working out it would be appreciated, thank you )


50 females and each is assumed to have around 400 offspring with half the offspring being female.
1/2 of 400 is 200 so just keep multiplying my 200 until u get to fifth gen.
2nd gen: 50 x 200 = 10,000
3rd gen: 10,000 x 200 = 2,000,000
4th gen: 2,000,000 x 200 = 400,000,000
fifth gen: 400,000,000 x 200 = 80,000,000,000

80 billion female fruit flies. :smile:
Original post by JA03
50 females and each is assumed to have around 400 offspring with half the offspring being female.
1/2 of 400 is 200 so just keep multiplying my 200 until u get to fifth gen.
2nd gen: 50 x 200 = 10,000
3rd gen: 10,000 x 200 = 2,000,000
4th gen: 2,000,000 x 200 = 400,000,000
fifth gen: 400,000,000 x 200 = 80,000,000,000

80 billion female fruit flies. :smile:


Edit: Add the previous generations onto the end because you assume no fly death.
To solve this problem, we can use the formula:

Number of females in generation n = (number of females in generation n-1) x (number of offspring per female) x 0.5

where n is the generation number.

Given that the first generation had 50 females, we can use this formula to calculate the number of females in each subsequent generation.

In the second generation:
Number of females in generation 2 = 50 x 400 x 0.5 = 10000

In the third generation:
Number of females in generation 3 = 10000 x 400 x 0.5 = 2000000

In the fourth generation:
Number of females in generation 4 = 2000000 x 400 x 0.5 = 400000000

In the fifth generation:
Number of females in generation 5 = 400000000 x 400 x 0.5 = 80000000000

Therefore, the fifth generation of fruit flies would have 80 billion (8 x 10^10) female fruit flies

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