Cellulose Molecule

Question

If it takes a student 5 minutes to "cut up or digest" the small portion of cellulose shown, how long would it take to digest the entire cellulose molecule that is 100 times longer?

Answer 1

I cannot see the small portion of cellulose shown but based on common sense:

Takes 5 minutes to digest 1 portion of cellulose.

Takes x minutes to digest 1 * (100 times longer) portion of cellulose.

Therefore:

5 min to 1 portion

x min to 100 portions

You multiply the 1 portion by 100 to get 100 portions. Therefore, you must also multiply the 5 minutes by 100 to get 500 minutes.

500 minutes = how many hours and minutes?

60 minutes = 1 hour,

so ... 500 minutes/60 minutes will give us 8.33,

Let's cut up that 8.33. If we multiply 8 by 60 minutes, we get 480 minutes. So 20 minutes are left to reach the full 500 minutes.

Therefore, to digest a cellulose molecule that is 100 times longer than the one shown would take 8 hours and 20 minutes.