A question for geneticists

[FranticProdigy]

I have a question for anybody who fancies genetics.

Geneticists put the sperm count at around 150 million, assuming a man is in their late 20's early 30's. Now assume that your individual sperm cell did not reach the egg in your mother, would you be the same person? Would it be a variation of yourself, similar to a sibling? Would you have the same mind, but a different body? Im confused. Somebody feed my brain!

[Ryan]

Each sperm cell is nearly alike, but not exactly alike. Every sperm cell has half of a set of DNA, the combinations for which half vary. There are 8192 combinations of halves that a sperm cell can have. If a sperm cell of the exact same combination had reached the egg then you would be roughly the same person barring minor genetic mutations that happen during meiosis.

If there is ANY difference in DNA from the hypothetically different sperm cell than the one that spawned you, then you would be a different person entirely. You would probably look mostly the same (depending on the amount of difference in the cell). It's possible you'd look almost exactly the same.

[FranticProdigy]

Thanks, I think that just about answers my question. Could you please lock this thread?