Question

I need help on these cell growth questions

1. As the length of the cell increases, which increases more rapidly the surface area or the volume? Justify your response. The How does the Surface area to volume ratio change as the length of the cell increases? 2. 3. Assume that every cell requires a minimum of 1 unit of oxygen per um (unit volume of cells) every second to stay alive. 10 um bacteria cell versus a 100 um cukaryotic cell? What effect might this have on the metabolic rate of the cell? b. 10 um bacteria 100 um eukaryotic a Oxygen /um2 of SA/second 100 Possible effect on metabolic rate b. As the length of the cell increases, what happens to the percentage of the cell that gets enough food and oxygen? 4. As the length of the cell increases what happens to the amount of time required to obtain food and oxygen? 5. 6. Explain, using the concepts you have learned in this lab, why cells divide.

Answer 1

(1) (2)

Mathematically, the surface area is a squared dimension while volume is cubed. This means as the volume of a cell increases, the increase in surface area varies with the square of the increased dimension whereas the increase in volume varies with the cube of the increased dimension.

the surface area to the volume ratio gets smaller as the cell gets larger. Smaller cells are much more efficient in absorbing nutrients since they have a larger surface area to the volume ratio. Thus, if the cell grows beyond a certain limit, its surface area is too small to supply its raw materials to its volume

Hence larger number of Small size cells are more efficient compared to small number of large size cells