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Originally Posted by Bababooyee
Yes, I understand that there can be more or less than 46. 46 is what the majority of humans have. I am just going with the norm. No, it doesn't matter much if it is 45 or 47 - it is the combo from the sperm and egg.
I am not following your question.
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Well there are many eggs in which the sperm does unite with the egg, but varying numbers of chromosomes actually enter the egg/zygote now. In the case where you just have 23, sperm and egg might have been united (some people's definition of conception) but none of the chromosomes from the sperm enter (or they enter but never get to the nucleus) so that would be 23, I guess.
There are also clearly cases in which the egg fertilized, or the sperm fertilizing, carries fewer than 23 (or in the alternative cases many more). So one can have all types of numbers of chromosomes. Some of these zygotes do develop into viable zygotes, some do not. Most involve having a chromosome number close to 46. But not always. So the potential to develop and the number of chromosomes is a bit fuzzy.