Question

A period in 24-point font (.) is about 1mm in diameter. SARS-CoV-2 has a diameter of 80 nm. The prefix “milli” means 1000, which tells you there are 1000 millimeters (mm)in a meter. The prefix “nano” means 109 (1 billion), which tells you there are 1 billion nanometers (nm) in a meter. Approximately how many SARS-CoV-2 viruses could fit in that period? (Hint: There are 106nm in 1mm).

Answer 1

Approximately 12,500 SARS-CoV-2 viruses

Step-by-step explanation:

According to this question, the period described is 1mm in diameter. Since 1millimetre(mm) is 1000metre(m), this means that the period is 0.001m in diameter.

Also, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has a diameter of 80 nm (1nm = 10^9m).

Since 10^6nanometres (nm) or 1,000,000nm makes 1millimeter (mm), 80nm of the virus will be:

= 80/1,000,000

= 0.000080mm or 8 × 10^-5mm

To calculate how many of the SARS-CoV-2 virus will fit into the period, we divide the diameter of the period (in mm) by the diameter of the virus (in mm).

That is; 1 ÷ 8 × 10^-5

= 1/8 × 10^5

= 0.125 × 100,000

= 12,500

Therefore, approximately 12500 SARS-CoV-2 viruses will fit in the period.