The average human cell that is capable of dividing has a cell cycle of 20 hour. How many cells would there be in one week if they start with one cell at time zero?
Multiply 24 hours by 7 and divide that number by 20.
8.4
To find the number of cells at the end of one week, we need to determine how many times the cell divides within that timeframe.
Given that the cell cycle is 20 hours, we can calculate the number of divisions that occur in one week. Since there are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, we can calculate the number of cell divisions in one week as follows:
Total hours in a week = 24 hours/day * 7 days/week = 168 hours/week
Number of cell divisions in one week = Total hours in a week / Cell cycle duration
= 168 hours/week / 20 hours/cell cycle
Now, dividing the total hours in a week by the cell cycle duration, we find:
Number of cell divisions in one week = 8.4 cell cycles
However, we need to consider the fact that the first cell division takes place after the completion of the first cell cycle, which means there will be two cells at that point. Therefore, we need to add one extra cell to our count, resulting in a total of 9.4 cells.
Since we cannot have a fraction of a cell, we can round down to the nearest whole number, which means there would be a total of 9 cells at the end of one week.