If the agar blocks were living cells and the sodium hydroxide were a vital substance...?

Question

This was in a biology lab I did about the relationship between cell size and diffusion with agar blocks. The 3 blocks sizes were 3 cm, 2 cm, and 1 cm. If the agar blocks were living cells and the sodium hydroxide were a vital substance, which block would have the most efficient ratio of surface area to volume?

Answer 1

The 1 cm block has the most efficient ratio. Because the 1cm block has the lowest SA-V ratio, the sodium hydroxide diffuses in faster. The larger the block, the higher this ratio is, and the longer it takes to get nutrients into and out of the cell. This is why cells do not just keep getting bigger and bigger instead of dividing by mitosis.

Answer 2

One cm because when the larger a cell gets the smaller it's surface to area volume. Thats why sells have things like microvilli to increase the surface area.

Answer 3

The small cell. THink about it, as the surface ration doubles, that total volume more then triples. If the nutients cannot get to the interior of a cell, the cell will die.

Answer 4

Water