Your Friend Is Trying to Learn About How to Kill

question 42

Multiple Choice

Your friend is trying to learn about how to kill bacteria. She reads that preservatives such as citric acid are added to foods because the acidic environment kills bacteria by denaturing their proteins. She thinks this sounds like a lot of scientific jargon and asks you what it means. How can you explain it in simpler terms?

• A)Denaturing their proteins means that the proteins in bacteria are converted into carbohydrates.
• B)The acid causes the cells to swell and burst open, also known as denaturation.
• C)Denaturing means that the proteins of the bacteria lose their structure and can't function, so the bacteria die.
• D)Denaturing refers to the fact that the bacterial cells divide too quickly and die.

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Definitions:

Long-Run Equilibrium

A state in which all factors of production and costs are variable, and firms are making neither excess profit nor losses, typically reached over time.

Decreasing-Cost Industry

An industry in which expansion through the entry of firms lowers the prices that firms in the industry must pay for resources and therefore decreases their production costs.

Long-Run Supply Curve

A graphical representation showing the relationship between market prices and the amount of output that firms are willing to supply in the long run.

Industry Expansion

The process of an industry growing in size, output, or number of participants, often through increased demand or technological advancements.