A student carries out a serial dilution of a bacterial culture to estimate its population size.
The student uses the following method:
- Transfer 10 cm310\text{ cm}^310 cm3 of the bacterial culture from an original culture of 60 cm360\text{ cm}^360 cm3 to a sterilised test tube.
- Carry out five 10-fold serial dilutions. Each dilution involves transferring 1 cm31\text{ cm}^31 cm3 of culture from one test tube to another test tube containing 9 cm39\text{ cm}^39 cm3 of sterile distilled water.
- Transfer 1 cm31\text{ cm}^31 cm3 of the final diluted culture to an agar plate and spread it evenly.
- Incubate the agar plate and count the colonies.
The student counts 35 colonies on the agar plate.
Calculate the total number of bacterial cells in the original 60 cm360\text{ cm}^360 cm3 culture. Assume each colony on the agar plate grew from a single live bacterium. Give your answer in standard form.
