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Question About Cell Surface Area & Volume

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Question About Cell Surface Area & Volume

Postby WelDone on Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:33 pm

I have read your sticky in homework and have done all the steps that you provided, and there is no information in the textbook, or on the internet that I could find. So please, could someone tell me or provide me a link for:

-What are the advantages to having a large surface area in a cell?(I thought that was not a good thing :( )

-What are the disadvantages to having a large volume in a cell?
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Postby mith on Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:40 pm

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Cell Surface to Volume Ratio

Postby TPort ScienceProfOnline on Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:29 pm

Cell size is limited by surface to volume ratio.

Cells are small so they can exchange materials with their surroundings.

Surface area relative to the volume decreases as size of cell increases. This limits the size of cells

The more surface area the cell has, the more area there is to exchange materials with the outside environment.

Large internal volume relative to surface area makes it more difficult to traffic materials into and out of the cell
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