Question #91fdd

1 Answer
Oct 12, 2015

It is going to be required four divisions

Explanation:

By definition:

"In meiosis, DNA replication is followed by two rounds of cell division to produce four daughter cells each with half the number of chromosomes as the original parent cell. "[1]

From team4ab.pbworks.com.

So, making the math:

f(0)=1
f(1)=4
....
f(k)=4^k

So:

102=4^k

take the ln:

ln102=ln4^k

k=ln102/ln4

k=4

Thus, if we start with just one cell, we need four generations for having 102. Furthermore, with 26 generations, we have 4.5*10^15.

The math is sound, if there is a problem of interpretation of the question, just adapt the answer, it is a combinatorial problem, exponential growth.

[1] Meiosis. (2015, October 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:03, October 12, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meiosis&oldid=684857181