In article <341C91A6.712FEE42 at acsu.buffalo.edu>, Andrew Ippolito <aji97 at acsu.buffalo.edu> wrote:
[...]
> Sorry to ramble, but the answer to your question is probably on the
>order of
>10^11 or so atoms. (that's a quatrillion or something like that:)
>>Irina Gayevskaya wrote:
>>> I was wondering, how many ATOMS are there in the simplest unicellular
>> organism (excluding bacteria - those that have nucleus)?
>>>> Please specify if the number is your guess or from a reliable source
>> and state the source
>> Thanks, Tom
>>>
More like 10^14
Assuming the cell being just a tiny drop of water (after all its mostly that):
cell volume in the range of 10^-9 ml
water MW=18g/mol
Avogadro's number=6x10^23 pieces/mol
you get:
the number of moles of water in the cell: 10^-9/18 moles/cell
the number of water molecules in the cell: (10^-9x6x10^23)/18 molecules/cell=
(10^14)/3 molecules/cell
and as each water molecule has 3 atoms:
the number of atoms per cell: 3x(10^14)/3=10^14 atoms/cell
AB
