- The distance between nucleotides is 0.34 nm, or .34 x 10-9 m = 3.4 x 10-10 m.
- You have about 6 billion
base pairs per cell in 46 chromosomes (p. 313).
- (6 x 109) x (3.4 x 10-10 m.) = 2.04 m. of DNA per cell.
- You have about 200 trillion (2 x 1014) somatic cells (p. 230).
- If all the DNA in your cells were uncoiled and lined up end-to-end, their total length is
(2 x 1014) x 2 m. = 400 trillion m. = 400 billion km.
- The distance
from Earth to the Sun is about 150 million km, or 300M km round trip.
- You have enough DNA to take over 1,000 round trips to the Sun.