The human body is estimated to contain approximately 40 trillion (40,000,000,000,000) bacteria and about 20,000 genes. To find out how many times the number of bacteria is greater than the number of genes, you would divide the number of bacteria by the number of genes.
If we use the approximation:
- Number of bacteria: 40,000,000,000,000 (or 40 trillion)
- Number of genes: 20,000
Now we can calculate:
\[ \text{Ratio} = \frac{\text{Number of bacteria}}{\text{Number of genes}} = \frac{40,000,000,000,000}{20,000} \]
Calculating that gives:
\[ \text{Ratio} = \frac{40,000,000,000,000}{20,000} = 2,000,000,000 \]
So, the number of bacteria in the human body is approximately 2 billion times the number of genes.
However, the choices you provided do not include this calculation. Here are the respective values for your multiple-choice options, annotated with their numerical values:
- A: 250
- B: 4,000
- C: 25,000,000
- D: 400,000,000
Based on the calculations made, the closest numerical representation indicating how many times the bacteria outnumber genes is:
D: 400,000,000 (though the actual number is much larger around 2 billion, D is the closest in magnitude).
If you meant to present different values, the correct number is substantially higher, so none of the provided options are correct for this specific calculation.
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