Question

A molecular biologist measures the mass of cofactor A in an average yeast cell. The mass is 67.55 pg. What is the total mass in micrograms of cofactor A in a yeast colony containing 10^5 cells? Answer in decimal

Answer 1

At first, pg means picogram

`1pg=10^(-12)g`

A microgram is a unit to measure the mass

`1\mu g=10^(-6)g`

Then from both relation

`1pg=10^(-6)\mu g`

Now we can solve the question

Since the average mass per cell is 67.55 pg

Since the number of cells is 10^5

To find the total mass multiply them

`\begin{gathered} T\mathrm{}m=67.55*10^5 \\ T\mathrm{}m=6755000pg \end{gathered}`

We need to change it to microgram, then multiply it by 10^-6

`T\mathrm{}m=6755000*10^(-6)`

Put a decimal point at the end of the number and move it 6 places to the left to get the answer

`T\mathrm{}m=6.755\mu g`