Different values for Km
Since we still don't know what Km is, let's just pick a nice easy value.
How about one?
Remember, were still trying to find out what this strange looking piece of the equation does.
So let's make a table of the values:
| If you turn on javascript, this becomes a rollover |
| [S] | 0 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [S]/(1+[S]) | 0 | 5/6 | 10/11 | 15/16 | 20/21 | 25/26 | 30/31 |
| V | 0 | 25 | 27.3 | 28.1 | 28.6 | 28.8 | 29.0 |
Well, that's a relief! In fact, this chunk of the equation does have values that range from zero to (almost) one. Just for fun, let's try it with a different value for Km. In fact, you can pick your own value for Km below. You can also try numbers smaller than one, as long as they are positive.
Choose a value for Km:
| [S] | 0 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [S]/(1+[S]) | 0/ | 5/ | 10/ | 15/ | 20/ | 25/ | 30/ |
| V | 0 |
You probably noticed that no matter what value you pick, the value of this chunk of the equation runs from zero to a fraction somewhere near one. And V runs from zero to almost 30 (or, almost Vmax). Therefore, we can think of this chunk of the equation as expressing the percentage of Vmax obtained under certain circumstances (that is, given certain concentration of substrate).
Copyright University of Maryland, 2007
You may link to this site for educational purposes.
Please do not copy without permission
requests/questions/feedback email: mathbench@umd.edu