Question

The volume of a certain bacterial cell is 1.60 μm3. Give your answers in scientific notation. (a) What is its volume in cubic millimeters (mm3)? ×10mm3/cell (b) What is the volume of (exactly) 1 ×108 cells in liters (L)? ×10L

Answer 1

Answer:

(a) 1.60 × 10⁻⁹ mm³/cell

(b) 2 × 10⁻⁴ L

Explanation:

The volume of a certain bacterial cell is 1.60 μm³. Give your answers in scientific notation.

(a) What is its volume in cubic millimeters (mm³)?

The required conversion factors are:

• 1 m = 10⁶ μm
• 1 m = 10³ mm

$\frac{1.60\mu m^{3} }{cell} .(\frac{1m}{10^{6} \mu m})^{3} .(\frac{10^{3}mm }{1m} )^{3} =1.60\times 10^{-9} mm^{3} /cell$

(b) What is the volume of (exactly) 1 × 10⁸ cells in liters (L)?

The required conversion factors are:

• 1 mm³ = 1 mL
• 1 L = 10³ mL

$1\times 10^{8} cell \times \frac{1.60\times 10^{-9} mm^{3}}{cell} \times \frac{1mL}{1mm^{3} } \times \frac{1L}{10^{3}mL } =2 \times 10^{-4} L$