[pauljohn]

i've been getting a wide and varied selection of answers to this question.  does anybody here know for sure?

[Arkcon]

Yes.  One eukaruotic chromosome is one, meters long, molecule of DNA, coiled around histones and other proteins, and associated cellular structures.

Sometimes, the answers come easy, and sometimes they have to be teased out.

What differing opinions have other people had?  The familiar X of human chromosomes, found at a certain point in mitosis, is, in fact, two paired chromatids, so you could technically say it's two DNA molecules.  But it's not cut up randomly, or according to genes, or somesuch.

[Yggdrasil]

I agree with Arkon's general statement.  However, a chromosome is one very long piece of double stranded DNA.  I'm not sure whether it would be correct to count the double stranded DNA as one molecule, because they could be considered as two separate molecules that are non-covalently bound together.

[Arkcon]

However, a chromosome is one very long piece of double stranded DNA.