A sample of milk is tested for its bacterial content in a plate count assay. A one-milliliter sample of the milk is diluted in a 1:10 dilution series. One milliliter of the third dilution tube is plated in a pour plate. After incubation, the plate has 54 colonies, indicating that the original milk sample contained .
a) 54 cells
b) 540 cells
c) 5400 cells
d) 54,000 cells
e) 540,000 cells

Four different thermometers were used to measure the temperature of a sample of pure boiling water. the measurements are recorded in the table below. thermometer temperature reading 1 temperature reading 2 temperature reading 3 w 100.1°c 99.9°c 96.9°c x 100.4°c 102.3°c 101.4°c y 90.0°c 95.2°c 98.6°c z 90.8°c 90.6°c 90.7°c the actual boiling point of pure water is 100.0°c. what can be concluded from the data about the reliability and validity of the thermometers?