BiomoleculeshardNUMERICAL

Consider a massive linear amylose chain consisting of glucose units. How many hydrolytic cleavages (Biomolecules Chemistry Question

Question

Consider a massive linear amylose chain consisting of $4000$ glucose units. How many hydrolytic cleavages (broken glycosidic bonds) are required to completely lower the average polymer length down to uniform fragments of $400$ units each?

Answer: 9

💡 Solution & Explanation

To reduce a linear polymer of 4000 units into exact sequences of 400 units, one needs exactly $4000 / 400 = 10$ fragments. Breaking a single continuous string into $n$ pieces requires $n - 1$ cuts. Thus, $10 - 1 = 9$ cleavages are needed.

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