Question

Of course, the development of an adult organism from a zygote isn’t quite that simple. In addition, things can go awry with cell division – notably the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells that divide in an uncontrolled way. If a single cancer cell in a tissue of the human body divides once every day, how long will it take for that cell to produce a tumor 14 cm3 in volume? Assume that the original cell has a volume of 10^-9 cm3, and determine the integral number of divisions that gives the closest result.

Answer 1

Solution:

From the question given we can assume that the cells would follow an exponential growth and none of them would die, and they would all stick to each other and they will not break off from the tumour.

So,
(2ⁿ cells) X 10^-9 cm³/cell = 21 cm³

Solving for n,

We will get approximately

n = 34.2896703

The integral number which would give the closest result to 21 cm³, so that'd be 34 divisions.