Isn't 33 microliters of bacterium in 300 microliters of medium a 1/10 dilution? --> 33/333 = 1/10?
Either way, say we measure the growth rate (cell count) over a period of time for each dilution factor (eg. 10^-1, 10^-2, 10^-3, etc)
Obviously the 10^-3 dilution will have a lower cell count at the end of the period compared to the 10^-1 dilution.
What I'm asking is what could be the reason for this?
1. Is it because of the actual initial dilution factor of the bacterium?
2. Or is it because of the dilution factor of the spent media?
And ultimately, what would be the best way to figure out which reason it is?