Question

Gorter and Grendel extracted lipids from human red blood cells. They calculated the total surface area for these red blood cells and found it to be 36 µ2. How much surface area would these lipids cover once they were spread across the surface of water?

a) 72 µ2
b) 36 µ2
c) 18 µ2
d) 144 µ2
e) 30 µ2

Answer 1

Gorter and Grendel's study found that the lipid molecules from human red blood cells could cover twice the cell's surface, leading to the conclusion that the correct surface area covered by lipids when spread out is 72 µ2.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question involves the experiment conducted by Gorter and Grendel, in which they calculated the total surface area of lipids extracted from human red blood cells.

Given that the total surface area of these red blood cells was found to be 36 µ2, and from their research, they concluded that there were enough lipid molecules to double-layer (or cover twice) the cell surface, the correct answer to how much surface area these lipids would cover when spread across the surface of water is 72 µ2. This outcome supported the phospholipid bilayer structure of cell membranes.