Importance Of Surface Area In Agar Cubes

Submitted By kcortes215
Words: 374
Pages: 2

Freshman Biology

The demonstration of surface area to volume ratio can be explained by the saturation of the dye in the agar cubes. The 1cm cube had the most saturation; therefore the ratio is the greatest. The 3cm cube had the lowest saturation, therefore the ratio is the lowest and the 2cm cube was in between, so the ratio was in the middle. Our hypothesis for this experiment was that if the surface area to volume ratio is increased in model cells, then the percentage of the model cells uncolored will be decreased because the surface area was not changed in any way, so the surface area to volume ratio will not change. But if the model cells where to be decrease, the uncolored cells will be seen as increased due to its surface area not changing. Our results for this experiment where that the volume number of the squares where smaller than those of the surface area. So the Surface Area to Volume Ratio where higher numbers to lower numbers, which in this case would be 1cm=6:1, 2cm=3:1, and 3cm=2:1. The Diffusion Depth was the same for all of them (.5cm) and the highest Diffusion Rate of the 3 cubes was the 1cm cube and the lowest was the 3cm cube. For the % Cube Uncolored and the % Cube Colored, the uncolored cubes percentage was low compared to the percentage of the colored cubes. In conclusion, the surface area controls the diffusion rate and the volume controls the depth of diffusion. It is always better to have a small surface area to volume ratio because the