Passage III
As a living cell's surface area-to-volume ratio (S/V) increases, so does the cell's ability to exchange substances with its environment.
To model this exchange process, different-sized cubes of gelatin were immersed in a dye for 1 minute. Table 1 lists the edge length, surface area, volume, S/V, and per-cent volume of gelatin that was dyed.
Figure 1 shows the S/V of certain rectangular solids and spheres.
Figure 2 shows the volume of certain rectangular solids and spheres as a function of surface area.
Table 2 lists the diameter and surface area of 5 types of spherical ova (egg cells).
15. Based on the information in Table 1, a cube-shaped cell with which of the following edge lengths will have the greatest S/V?
Your Answer is
Correct Answer is A
Explanation
Look at table 1, the smaller the edge length, the larger the S/V, so choose the smallest edge length of 20 mm