Describe how you could use two lb/agar plates, some e. coli, and some ampicillin to determine how e. coli cells are affected by ampicillin.

For this experiment we are going to take plate 1 as the control plate, so, in it there will be just E. coli in LB/agar; in plate 2, we are going to put E. coli in LB/agar and some ampicillin.  Then, we have to wait for the E. coli colonies to form. After a while, the E. coli growth can be compared on both plates and determine if ampicillin affects or not the E. coli colonies.

Explanation:

If the ampicillin affects negatively E. coli colonies, we are going to observe that in plate 1 (control plate) there are E. coli colonies growing, but in plate 2, there is no E. coli colonies or, at least, there is a fewer number of colonies on it. If ampicillin doesn't affect E.coli, plate 1 (control) and plate 2 (ampicillin experiment) are going to be similar in number of colonies.