The Student Room Group

Red blood counts

Hi everyone,

This is about Mean cell volume of blood. So basically, to calculate MCV of blood you need to divide haematocrit with red cell count, then the answer I get would be in litres. Now I need to convert Litres to fL (femtolitres) i know that there are 10^15 fL in 1 Litre, so how would I work this out? I have problem with the 10^15 part, thats what is confusing me.

Similarly how would I convert grams to pg (pictogrammes) ? there are 10^12 pg in 1 g.

I have tried looking on the internet but there are only converting calculators and no explanation whatsoever.


please someone help out
Reply 1
Original post by Gamewizard
Hi everyone,

This is about Mean cell volume of blood. So basically, to calculate MCV of blood you need to divide haematocrit with red cell count, then the answer I get would be in litres. Now I need to convert Litres to fL (femtolitres) i know that there are 10^15 fL in 1 Litre, so how would I work this out? I have problem with the 10^15 part, thats what is confusing me.

Similarly how would I convert grams to pg (pictogrammes) ? there are 10^12 pg in 1 g.

I have tried looking on the internet but there are only converting calculators and no explanation whatsoever.


please someone help out


10^15 is the same as 10 to the power of 15

Essentially:

10 x 10 x 10.. 15 times.

Since when you times by 10 you just add a 0, all you need to do for converting to FL from L is stick fifteen 0's on the end of your value.

Same thing for grams to pictograms except thats adding twelve 0's to the end not fifteen.
Reply 2
Original post by Wallam
10^15 is the same as 10 to the power of 15

Essentially:

10 x 10 x 10.. 15 times.

Since when you times by 10 you just add a 0, all you need to do for converting to FL from L is stick fifteen 0's on the end of your value.

Same thing for grams to pictograms except thats adding twelve 0's to the end not fifteen.


Thanks you explained it really well :smile:

Quick Reply

Latest