Cell growth and division. V. Error analysis of the Collins-Richmond equation

Error propagation in the Collins-Richmond equation is analyzed in order to obtain the ratio of the fractional error in rate of cell volume increase to the fractional error in each experimental variable. Typical data are analyzed numerically for the total errors resulting from counting statistics, from spectral broadening, and from volume calibration shift. The measurement of 10(4) cells can give a precision of better than 10% in the volume growth rate with a volume resolution of 3%.