OLANTE,Rushel C.

BEE II-C

PHYSICS FOR HEALTH SCIENCES

Discuss the role of the surface area to volume-ratio of organisms to their size, terminal velocity, and impact upon landing from a fall, rate of heat loss/heat production and life span.

The importance of maintaining a high surface area to volume ration in cells is that when the cell membrane increases, the volume will decrease thus making a lesser area for the exchange of gases, nutrients, and waste.

The surface area to volume ratio of a cell is therefore very important. If the ratio is too small, substances will not be able to enter the cell as quickly as needed and waste products would accumulate. The surface area to volume ratio is also important in relation to heat production. If the ratio is too small, the cells may overheat because the metabolism produces heat much faster than is lost over the cell’s surface. It is very easy to see the importance of the surface area to volume ration as a factor limiting cell size.

Terminal Velocity is the velocity at which the driving forces are cancelled out by the resistive forces.  Terminal velocity depends a great deal upon the shape of the object that is facing the direction it is moving. Once an object has reached terminal velocity, the object is not accelerating (a=0), therefore it is not speeding up or slowing down. Typically, Terminal Velocity is only a possibility when you are dealing with fluid friction as opposed to contact friction like static or kinetic friction.