What Limits the Size of a Cell?

How big is too big?

Why?
Super-sized menu items, extra large furniture pieces, huge mansions, and giant ball players are all
considered desirable in certain situations. What about cells? Does having big cells make an
organism bigger or better? Are the cells found in defensive linemen playing for the Green Bay
Packers the same size as the cells found in you or me? Would having big cells be an advantage to an
organism?

Model 1

1. List the different shapes shown in Model 1.

2. How many different sizes are shown for each shape?

3. What is similar about the shapes?

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4. What is different about the shapes in Model 1?

5. Looking at the 3 largest figures, write them in sequence from smallest to largest surface area.

6. Now sequence the 3 largest figures according to smallest to largest volume.

7. Does the shape with the largest surface area also have the largest volume? Explain.

8. Graph the calculated surface areas and volumes for each of the three shapes on the grid
provided. Put surface area on the x axis and volume on the y axis. Be sure to give your graph a
title and label the axes. Also remember to include a key defining what each plotted curve
represents.

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9. What pattern do you notice about the curves on the graph?

Model 2

10. List the materials that are leaving the cell.

11. List the materials that are entering the cell.

12. Which dimension of size (surface area or volume) is most closely related to the movement of
materials into cells? How do you know? Support your answer.

13. What is the outcome for the cell if it does not receive the materials that are entering?

14. What is the outcome for the cell if it cannot remove the materials that are leaving?

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15. How might the cell’s functions be affected if its volume were too small?

16. Fill in the SA:V row in the table above. Calculate the value of this ratio for each shape and size,
using the following formula:
R sa : v = SA ÷ V
17. Which size and shape has the lowest SA : V ratio?

Which has the highest?

18. What is the relationship between SA:V ratio and the size of the shape?

19. Suppose that each shape above is filled with a gel-like substance. Trapped inside at the center of
the shape is a small particle that needs to leave the shape and can do so through any part of the
surface. Which shape and size will the particle be able to leave most quickly? Why?

20. Referring back to the question above, which shape and size will take the longest? Why?

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21. Now, consider a cell that needs lots of energy. Glucose must continually enter the cell
membrane to fuel the mitochondria spread throughout the cytoplasm. Which dimension of cells
(surface area or volume) controls how quickly glucose can enter the cell? Explain.

22. As the mitochondria produce ATP, they are also producing the waste product CO2. Which
dimension of cells controls how quickly the CO2 can leave the cell? Explain.

23. Thinking about the relationship between the size of a shape and its SA:V ratio, would cell
functions be affected positively or negatively if a cell was very tiny? Explain.

24. Again, thinking about the relationship between the size of a shape and its SA:V ratio, how would
functions be affected if a cell was very large?

Read This!
Living organisms must balance their investment of energy and materials with their need for survival.
Thus, one can imagine that there is an optimal size of cells that allow an organism to invest the least
amount of materials and energy while still efficiently importing materials and exporting wastes in
order to maintain all its functions.

25. Consider two organisms of roughly the same size: one is made of tiny cells and the other is made
of larger cells. Which will have the greatest investment of materials? Explain your group’s
thinking.

26. Suppose a cell became very, very large and was able to produce a lot of energy. What might be
the disadvantage(s) to being so large?

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27. Based on what you’ve learned in this activity, answer the question from the “Why?” box: are the
cells found in defensive linemen playing for the Green Bay Packers likely to be much larger than
the cells found in you or me? Refer to what you’ve learned in this activity to defend your
answer.

Extension
28. Propose, by means of a sketch, geometrical shapes of cells that would allow a balance of
function and materials movement for each of the following situations:
a. long-distance communication

b. stretching

c. storage

d. covering and protecting

e. importing large quantities of material for transfer to other cells

29. The cells of extra-large strawberries are often extra-large. Keeping in mind that one important
function of fruit is the storage of sugars that result from photosynthesis, explain how these cells
would be beneficial to the plant.

30. Among unicellular eukaryotes, cell sizes differ greatly. Amoeba and Paramecium organisms are
animal-like protists that are heterotrophic, have no cell wall, and are several times larger than
most human cells. What might be some reasons why these unicellular organisms have larger
cells than cells with similar traits (heterotrophic, lacking cell walls) found in multicellular
organisms?

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