The DNA in a human cell weighs approximately 2.0 x 10-12 grams. Calculate how many cells you would need to use to isolate 1 mg (milligram or 1x10-3 grams) of DNA, assuming you can get all the DNA out of a cell.
I honestly don't know how to start and solve this problem...
You have a very small weighing DNA portion of a cell. You want to know how many cells you need to isolate .001 mg of the DNA. If you divide out the amount you need .001 by .000000000002 (which is the weight of one amount of DNA) then you get how many cells needed : )
Your answer should be 500,000,000 cells
To solve this problem, we need to calculate the number of cells necessary to isolate 1 mg of DNA. We know that the DNA in a human cell weighs approximately 2.0 x 10^(-12) grams, and we need to isolate 1 x 10^(-3) grams of DNA.
To find the number of cells needed, we can set up a proportion:
(Number of cells needed) / (DNA weight per cell) = (Total DNA weight needed) / (DNA weight per cell)
Let's substitute the values into the equation:
(Number of cells needed) / (2.0 x 10^(-12) grams) = (1 x 10^(-3) grams) / (2.0 x 10^(-12) grams)
Now, let's simplify the equation:
(Number of cells needed) = [(1 x 10^(-3) grams) / (2.0 x 10^(-12) grams)] * (2.0 x 10^(-12) grams)
Cancelling out the units:
(Number of cells needed) = (1 x 10^(-3)) / (2.0 x 10^(-12)) * (2.0 x 10^(-12))
The units and similar exponents in the denominator and numerator cancel out, leaving:
(Number of cells needed) = 1 / 2.0 = 0.5
Therefore, you would need approximately 0.5 cells to isolate 1 mg of DNA. However, since it is not possible to use fractional cells, you would need at least 1 cell to isolate the desired amount of DNA.
To solve this problem, we need to determine the number of cells needed to isolate 1 mg of DNA.
First, we need to find the amount of DNA in a single cell. Given that the DNA in a human cell weighs approximately 2.0 x 10^-12 grams, we can assume that all the DNA is successfully extracted from a single cell.
Next, we can set up a proportion to find the number of cells needed to isolate 1 mg of DNA:
(DNA in 1 cell) / (# of cells) = 1 mg / (mass of 1 cell)
To find the mass of 1 cell, we can take the inverse of the weight of DNA in 1 cell:
mass of 1 cell = 1 / (2.0 x 10^-12) grams
Now we can substitute the known values into the proportion and solve for the number of cells:
(2.0 x 10^-12 grams) / (# of cells) = 1 mg / (1 / (2.0 x 10^-12) grams)
Simplifying the right side:
(2.0 x 10^-12 grams) / (# of cells) = 1 mg / (2.0 x 10^-12) grams
Now we can cross-multiply and solve for the number of cells:
(2.0 x 10^-12 grams) * (2.0 x 10^-12) grams = 1 mg * (# of cells)
(4.0 x 10^-24 grams^2) = 1 mg * (# of cells)
Now, convert 1 milligram to grams:
1 mg = 1 x 10^-3 grams
(4.0 x 10^-24 grams^2) = (1 x 10^-3 grams) * (# of cells)
Divide both sides by (1 x 10^-3 grams):
(4.0 x 10^-24 grams^2) / (1 x 10^-3 grams) = # of cells
Now we can simplify the left side:
(4.0 x 10^-24 grams^2) / (1 x 10^-3 grams) = 4.0 x 10^-24 / 1 x 10^-3 = 4.0 x 10^-24 / 10^-3
Using the property of dividing exponentials with the same base (10 in this case):
4.0 x 10^-24 / 10^-3 = 4.0 x 10^(-24 - (-3)) = 4.0 x 10^-21
Therefore, you would need approximately 4.0 x 10^-21 cells to isolate 1 mg of DNA.