
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
The bacteria in a petri dish double every 30 seconds. After two minutes and thirty seconds, there are 20,480 bacteria in the dish. How many were in the dish at the beginning of the experiment?

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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