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"Every million "letters" (nucleotides) take up a linear distance of only 3.4 × 10E5 nm

(0.034 cm)....The [haploid] human genome...contains about 3 x 10E9 nucleotide pairs, organized

as 24 chromosomes (22 different autosomes and 2 different sex chromosomes), and thus consists

of 24 different DNA molecules - each containing from 50 × 10E6 to 250 x 10E6 nucleotide pairs

of DNA. DNA molecules of this size are 1.7 to 8.5 cm long when uncoiled, and even the slightest

mechanical force will break them once the chromosomal proteins have been removed."

Thus, using the conversion factor of 0.034 cm per million (10E6) nucleotides, the uncoiled length

of the total human genome would be approximately 102 cm, or 40 inches. This is pretty impressive

if you consider that "A typical [dipoid] human cell thus contains ...about 6 × 10E9 nucleotide

pairs of DNA....By comparison, 6 x 10E9 letters..would occupy more than a million pages [of a

typical book].", as described in the Molecular Biology of the Cell.

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