Question

One molecule glucose makes 30 molecules of ATP. How many molecules of glucose are needed to make 600 molecules of ATP in aerobic respiration?

Answer 1

When 1 glucose yields 30 ATP, 20 glucose would yield 600 ATP.

Explanation:

It is stated that 30 ATP is produced per molecule glucose. If that is true, then:

`(600color(red)cancel(color(black)"ATP")) / (30 color(red)cancel(color(black)("ATP"))/"glucose") = color(red)20 " glucose"`

But actually aerobic respiration has a net yield of about 36 ATP per glucose molecule (sometime 38 depending on the energy used to transfer molecules in the process).

So actually 1 glucose molecule yields 36 ATP. For 600 ATP you would need 17 glucose molecules :

`(600color(red)cancel(color(black)"ATP")) / (36 color(red)cancel(color(black)("ATP"))/"glucose") = color(red)17 " glucose"`