uestion 7 Suppose the height of the nail on your little finger is 1 cm. How many

Question

uestion 7 Suppose the height of the nail on your little finger is 1 cm. How many E. coli, ned up "end-to-end," would it take to cover this distance? Question 8, Another aspect of biology that must deal with enormous scales is in the history of life of our planet. The oldest unequivocal fossil evidence of life is that of bacterial fossils that are about 3.5 billion years old (3,500,000,000 yrs). Animals are at least 500 million years old (fossil data), and perhaps as old as 1 billion years. And the final extinction of the dinosaurs (end-Cretaceous extinction), followed closely by the explosive diversification of the mammals, occurred about 66 million years ago. If we let 100 years represent a human lifespan (rather generous but it keeps the numbers simple), how many times longer than a human lifespan are we removed from the oldest animal fossils)? If we represent the hundred years of a human lifespan by 1 millimeter, what is the length needed to represent the time back to the oldest animal fossils? Can you find some familiar structure that is that high, or familiar places that are that far apart? 2 9

Explanation / Answer

Question 7

Since E. Coli cell is about 2 m

Also, 1cm = 10000 m

Therefore, if lined up end to end 10000/2 = 5000 E.Coli cells will cover 1cm distance.

Question 8

The oldest animal fossil is 1 billion years (1000000000 years)

If 100 years represent human lifespan, then, the oldest animal fossil is 1000000000/100 = 10000000 (ten billion) times longer

Also, animal fossils are 500 million years old

i.e. 1mm = 100 years

or, 100years = 1mm

1 year = 1/100 mm

Or, 1 year =0.01 mm

500 million years = 0.01 x 500 million

Or, 500 million years = 0.01 x 500000000

500 million years = 5000000mm

5000000mm is equivalent to 50,000cm or 500m or 0.5km

For 1 billion the length needed to represent the time back will be 1km or 1000m.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse U
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.