Harriet is cultivating a strain of bacteria in a petri dish. currently, she has 103 bacteria in the dish. the bacteria divide every two hours such that the number of bacteria has doubled by the end of every second hour. how many bacteria will harriet have in the dish at the end of 6 hours

Based on the conditions given above, the number of bacteria at any time t (in hours) is calculated by the equation,
                                         at = (a1)(2^t/2)

where a1 is the initial number of bacteria and at is the number at any time t. Substituting the givens,
                                      a6 = (103)(2^6/2) = 824 

Thus, there are 824 bacteria after 6 hours.