Question

You explain to a friend what you have learned about Avogadro's number. Your friend thinks the number is so large that he doubts there is even a mole of living cells on the Earth. You have recently heard that there are about 50 trillion (5 × 10^13) human cells in each adult human body and that each human contains more bacterial cells (in the digestive system) than human cells, so you bet your friend $5 that there is more than a mole of cells on Earth. The human population is approximately 7 billion (7 × 10^9). What calculation can you show your friend to convince him you are right?

Answer 1

To calculate the total number of cells on Earth, multiply the human population by the number of cells in each human body, and then multiply that result by the ratio of bacterial cells to human cells.

Step-by-step explanation:

To convince your friend that there is more than a mole of cells on Earth, you can calculate the total number of cells using the population of humans, the number of cells in each human body, and the ratio of bacterial cells to human cells. First, multiply the human population (7 billion) by the number of cells in each human body (50 trillion), and then multiply that result by the ratio of bacterial cells to human cells. This will give you an estimate of the total number of cells on Earth.