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

$\begin{gathered} T\mathrm{}m=67.55\times10^5 \\ T\mathrm{}m=6755000pg \end{gathered}$

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

$T\mathrm{}m=6755000\times10^{-6}$

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

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