Numerical Shortcuts and Tricks#

Numerical 1:

• To calculate the number of mitochondria in a human liver, multiply the average number of mitochondria per cell (1000) by the total number of cells in the liver (2 trillion).
• Use scientific notation to express the answer (200 trillion mitochondria).

Numerical 2:

• To determine the molecular weight of a typical protein, multiply the molecular weight of an average amino acid (110 g/mol) by the number of amino acids in a typical protein (100-200).
• The answer is expressed in grams per mole (55,000 g/mol).

Numerical 3:

• To calculate the number of nucleotides in the human genome, divide the total length of human DNA (3.2 billion base pairs or 3.2 x 10^9 nanometers) by the distance between two adjacent nucleotides (0.34 nanometers per nucleotide).
• Use scientific notation to represent the answer (5.9 x 10^9 nucleotides).

Numerical 4:

• To determine the number of nucleotides in a specific RNA molecule, divide its molecular weight (1.5 × 10^6 g/mol) by the average molecular weight of a nucleotide (330 g/mol).
• The result represents the total number of nucleotides in the RNA molecule (4545 nucleotides).