Final answer:
The number of possible chromosomal orientations during metaphase I is equal to the number of chromosome pairs raised to the power of n, where n represents the number of chromosomes in a set.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement is False. The number of possible chromosomal orientations during metaphase I is actually equal to the number of chromosome pairs raised to the power of n, where n represents the number of chromosomes in a set. This is because each chromosome pair can have two possible orientations at the equatorial plane. So, if there are n chromosome pairs, the total possible number of different orientations would be 2 raised to the power of n.
For example, in humans with 23 chromosome pairs (n = 23), the number of possible orientations is 2^23 = 8,388,608, which is over eight million possible combinations of paternal and maternal chromosomes.