2006-08-26 11:09:54 · 5 answers · asked by kcatcat 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Try calculating it.
The mass of a average sized virus is about 1.5 femtograms (1.5*10^{-15} g)and viruses are mad up primarily of protiens. Some coat themselves in sugars or other substances but these tend to be the bigger ones. Protein is roughly 70% carbon, 12% nitrogen, 10% oxygen, and 7% hydrogen by mass. We then break down the mass of the virus into these parts and get:
C: 1.05E-14g
N: 1.95E-16g
O: 1.50E-16g
H: 1.05E-16g
I will work through the remainder of the calculation for carbon and then just give the results for the others. The process should be redily duplicatable.
Consulting a periodic table we find that carbon is 12g/mol = 12 g / 6*10^23 atoms.
1.05E-14g / ( 12 g / 6E23 atoms ) = 1.05E-14g * 6E23 atoms / 12 g
The units cancel and we multiply the terms in the numerator:
= 6.3E9 atoms / 12 = 5.25E8 atoms = 525,000,000 atoms of carbon.
Repeating for the other elements we get
C: 525,000,000
N: 8,360,000
O: 5,630,000
H: 63,000,000
For a toal of aproximately 600,000,000 (six hundred million atoms)
2006-08-26 11:34:35 · answer #1 · answered by selket 3 · 5⤊ 0⤋
2
2016-08-22 21:54:08 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
about 10^14 (ten to the 14th power) or a hundred thousand billion.
2006-08-26 11:25:27 · answer #3 · answered by martin h 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
billions or maybe millions ( hard to count the dam things they keep bouncing around )
2006-08-26 11:22:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
which virus?
2006-08-26 11:19:05 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋