Assume a corn chloroplast has a volume of 20 cubic micrometers. Assume the dimen

Question

Assume a corn chloroplast has a volume of 20 cubic micrometers. Assume the dimensions of the chloroplast are that of a 2 x 2 x 5 micrometers, and that is box-shaped rather than an oval. This will make your calculations easier. If there are 10 layers of thylakoids in the chloroplast and each layer is equal to the surface area of one side (2 x 5 micrometers), then what is the total area of thylakoids if there are 50 chloroplasts per cell?

What is the ratio of thylakoid surface area to the overall surface area of the chloroplast?

Explanation / Answer

Since the area of the one layer of thylakoid is equal to the 10 um2 and there are 10 layers of thylakoids, then the total area of the thylakoids should be 100um2 per chloroplast and 5000 um2 per cell.

The surface area of one chloroplast should be 4*(2x5) + 2*(2x2).

= 40+8 = 48 um2.

Total surface area of chloroplast is equal to the 50*48 = 2400 um2

ratio of thylakoid surface area to the over all surface area of the chloroplast should be

5000/2400

= 2.08.

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