Question

The shortest stage of mitosis, the sister chromatids break apart, and the chromosomes begin moving to opposite ends of the cell

Answer 1

The stage you are describing is **anaphase**. During anaphase, the sister chromatids separate at the centromere and are pulled toward opposite poles of the cell by the spindle fibers. This separation is a crucial step in ensuring that each daughter cell receives an identical set of chromosomes during cell division. Anaphase follows metaphase and precedes telophase in the process of mitosis.