Question

Imagine that two test tubes are set up with 5 mls of starch in both and 500 amylase enzyme molecules added to one tube while 1,000 amylase enzyme molecules were added to the other. Would you expect them to finish digesting at the same time? If not, which one would complete the digestion first and why?

Answer 1

The test tube with 1,000 amylase enzyme molecules is expected to complete the digestion of starch faster.

Step-by-step explanation:

Digestion of starch starts in the mouth, where amylase breaks the starch chains into shorter pieces such as maltose. There are more amylase enzyme molecules in the test tube with 1,000 amylase molecules compared to the one with 500 amylase molecules. Therefore, you would expect the test tube with 1,000 amylase enzyme molecules to complete the digestion of starch faster than the other tube. This is because the higher concentration of amylase enzymes allows for more efficient and faster breakdown of starch molecules into sugars.

Answer 2

The test tube with 1000 amylase enzyme molecules would finish digestion quicker because there is a higher concentration of amylase, allowing more starch molecules to be digested in a given time, thus speeding up the digestion and finishing quicker.