Biology 140 Competency Exam
Name:
Section #:
Quantitative approaches are critical to understanding and solving problems in all areas of the biological sciences. This is a competency examination to illustrate the quantitative concepts that will be used in the lecture and laboratory portions of this course. All of the concepts included here are based upon mathematical ideas that are prerequisite to this course and you all should have mastered in your prior education. We expect that you will score above 90% correct on this exam. If you do not, we strongly urge you to take some actions to better comprehend the concepts you had difficulty with. You may do this either by refreshing your understanding of high school mathematics yourself, or by using some of the software available for your use in the Math Tutorial Center in Ayres Hall 205. If there is a need, we will also supply some help sheets to indicate how we suggest proceeding depending upon your answers. Details about how the Tutorial Center can help you are on the home page at: http://www.math.utk.edu/~rlittle/MTC.html
For each of the following questions, circle the correct answer. Read the questions carefully, and make any necessary calculations in the space provided.
1. Circle the larger of the following numbers if a > 1:
|
(a3)(a6) |
(a9)a |
a10 |
(a20)/(a8) |
(a3)5 |
2. A concentration of 2 mg/liter is equivalent to:
|
0.002 mg/ml |
2 mg/ml |
0.2 mg/ml |
0.02 mg/ml |
0.0002 mg/ml |
3. Which pair of numbers represents the mean and median for the following data:
6, 3, 4, 10, 12
(circle a, b, c, d, or e)
|
|
mean |
median |
|
a |
6 |
7 |
|
b |
7 |
6 |
|
c |
6 |
10 |
|
d |
7 |
4 |
|
e |
7 |
5 |
4. Circle the correct molecular weight for C6H12O6 if C has (approx.) atomic weight 12,
H has (approx.) atomic weight 1, &
O has (approx.) atomic weight 16.
|
24 |
72 |
180 |
192 |
29 |
5. Your bacterial growth lab has a stock solution of nutrients that is 10% sucrose. How much pure water should be added to 1 liter of this stock in order to produce a solution that has 2% sucrose?
|
4500 ml |
1 liter |
5 liters |
4 liters |
8 liters |
6. You wish to give a horse a dosage of 5 mg of an antibiotic which is supplied at a concentration of 50 mg/liter. What volume of solution should the horse be given?
|
100 ml |
250 ml |
0.05 liters |
10 ml |
0.001 liters |
7. This graph shows enzyme activity as a function of temperature for a typical enzyme
At what two temperatures is the activity approximately 1/2 of the maximum activity for this enzyme?
|
0 & 40 |
20 & 30 |
10 & 20 |
10 & 30 |
20 & 40 |
8. A reaction produces a product at a constant rate of 20 g/minute. How much product is produced in 1 hour?
|
2 kg |
1 kg |
1.2 kg |
0.8 kg |
0.12 kg |
9. A cylindrical beaker of radius 4 cm and height 10 cm has an approximate volume of:
|
180 cm3 |
240 cm3 |
2000 cm3 |
1000 cm3 |
500 cm3 |
10. How many moles of alcohol are in 10 liters of a solution of molarity 10-4 alcohol?
|
1 |
10-2 |
10 |
10-3 |
10-4 |
11. This graph shows data on the number of cells in a culture measured at six different times.
Approximately how many cells are present after 6 hours?
|
10,000 |
6000 |
1000 |
5000 |
8000 |