Answer: Time required for 100 molecules of valinomycin to transport enough [tex]K^{+}[/tex] to change the concentration inside an erythrocyte is 10 minutes.
Explanation:
The given data is as follows.
Ions to be transported = [tex](10 mM) \times (100 \mu^{3})(N)[/tex]
= [tex]0.010 mol \times 10^{-13} L \times 6.02 \times 10^{23} ions/mol[/tex]
= [tex]6.02 \times 10^{6}[/tex] ions
Here, there are 100 ionophores are present and each one of ionophores are required to transport a value of ions.
Therefore, the time required for 100 molecules of valinomycin to transport enough [tex]K^{+}[/tex] to change the concentration inside an erythrocyte is as follows.
[tex]6.02 \times 10^{6} ions \times \frac{1 sec}{10^{4} ions}[/tex]
= 602 sec
or, = 10 minutes (as 1 min = 60 sec)
Thus, we can conclude that time required for 100 molecules of valinomycin to transport enough [tex]K^{+}[/tex] to change the concentration inside an erythrocyte is 10 minutes.
