Agar experiment

Agar experiment

  • Submitted By: Ras2012xx
  • Date Submitted: 12/30/2015 10:08 AM
  • Category: Science
  • Words: 2244
  • Page: 9

In this experiment I will add hydrochloric acid to agar jelly cubes to see how the surface area to volume ratio affects through the agar cube.
Diffusion is one of the many processes which allow dissolved substances to pass through the cell membrane to get into or out of a cell. Diffusion takes place when particles spread out and can move freely. They transfer from a section where they are in higher concentration to a section where they are in low concentration. Bigger objects take longer to diffuse through because the volume to surface area ratio is too small i.e. when something becomes larger, the surface area to volume ratio decreases. The surface area of a cube is the length × the width × the number of sides (six sides).The volume of a cube is the length × width × volume.

Reference:
http://yr11-biology-revision.wikispaces.com/file/view/diffusion.png/353484104/diffusion.png
Vocational brief:
Surface area to volume ratio can be calculated for all three dimensional (3D) objects. As objects that are the same shape get bigger their surface area to volume ratio decreases. This is biologically important because living organisms need to exchange substances by diffusion across their surfaces (e.g. oxygen for respiration which they need for respiration), and the larger the surface area compared to volume ratio (of the organism) the more exchange can take place.
Surface area to volume ratio and its effect on diffusion is also important in industry. One example is in the production of starch from cereal crops such as corn. The corn needs to be thoroughly soaked in water as part of the process. If the rate of diffusion of water through the corn differs for different surface to volume ratios of the sections the corn put in the water, it is useful to which will produce the fastest soaking to speed up the manufacturing process.
Reference:
Name of authors: Liang-Tseng Fan, Pu-Shan Chu, and John A. Shellenberger....

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