Problem
The 3 metabolic pathways are glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle, or kreb cycle (Anderson et al, 2022). Organic molecules (i.e. glucose) are degraded in the process, thus, generating ATP. The reason that the number of ATP generated by this process is a theoretical number is because there are many factors which lead to the overall production of ATP. When a molecule enters these pathways, the molecule is degraded to form ATP and/or reducing power and/or precursor metabolites and/or any combination of the three. Therefore, a theoretical number is all that can be presumed without know what the exact molecule is and the exact process it takes through the metabolic pathways.