Findamental is how well is the medium mixed. 10 bacteria makes sense if the medium is truely homogeneous in all other constituents. The problem then is the classic "balls-in-an-urn", since a bacterium is a finite particle, and everything else is not a particle. If the medium is a gel, then the issue is primarily one of homogenaity, and you have to take many more samples. One then gets involved in a designed experiment involing three dimensional sample locations.
David Heiser . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
