Question

Estimate how long (in amino acids) a continuous chain of amino acids would have to be in order for that chain to compose a cylinder with the dimensions of 80 um in diameter and 1 cm long. Assume that the chain extends in one direction, until it comes to the end of the cylinder (1cm), and turns 180 degrees to loop back to continue in the other direction, etc. The final cross section of this cylinder would look similar to the cross section of a bundle of wires or a bundled cable.  If this continuous chain was made from one ribosome that synthesized protein at the rate of 5 amino acids per second, how long would it take to create the entire chain?

Answer 1

You have not specified the amino acid name which is formed by the ribosome

First you calculate the volume of cylinder

Then calculate volume of one amino acid

Then calculate total number of amino acids required to fill thr cylinder by dividing volume of cylinder by volume of one volume.

As ribosome produce 5 amino acids in 1 second, so can calculate totsl time required by

Dividing total number of amino aicds by 5

This will give the time required in seconds.

NOTE-U CAN TAKE THE AMINO ACID AS CUBE WITH ONE SIDE 3.5 ANGSTROM. VOLUME OF CUBE IS (side×side×side) AND VOLUME OF CYLINDER IS (π×radius×radius×length)

Hope this will help you.