Describe 2 advantages of using the electron microscope. The magnification is about 1000 times better than that of the light microscopes. 1.1.4 Define organelle. One of several formed bodies with a specialized function, suspended in the cytoplasm and found in eukaryotic cells. 1.1.6 Explain the importance of the surface area to the volume ratio as a factor limiting cell size.
Size is related to function.
Metabolic requirements also impose limits on the size that is practical for a single cell. As an object increases in size, its volume grows proportionately more than its surface area. Surface area is important to the rate of heat and material exchange. For each square micrometer of membrane , only so much of a particular substance can cross per second. The surface area must be sufficiently large enough to accommodate its volume.