For meiosis, independent assortment, I don't understand how there are 8 million possibilities.?

Question

I know about 2 to the power of 23, but if there are 23 from the male and 23 from the female, wouldn't you multiply 23 * 23 to find the possible gamete combinations?

Answer 1

Meiosis is the process of generating a gamete (a sperm cell or an egg cell).

In the male that means exactly (not about) 2^23 or 8,388,608 possible sperm cells (one selected from 23 pairs). Likewise in the female, there are 8,388,608 possible egg cells.

But you are right that the total number of possible offspring is 2^23 x 2^23, which is 2^46 (when multiplying two exponential numbers, you *add* the exponents).

So yes, that would be 2^46 = 70,368,744,177,664 possible offspring.

Answer 2

its a really complex math equation. since 23 are from the mother and 23 from the father then its like 23 combinations for 2 chromosomes lol you gotta do the math.