Why can’t spiders be ten feet tall? Can an ape grow to the size of King Kong? Surface area-to-volume relationships help shed light on the question of the size limits of organisms. At the nanoscale, things are so small that surface area effects impact the behavior of materials. For example, things tend to stick together and gravity plays a minor role. This activity gives students the opportunity to explore the sizes of things and scale as they investigate questions like “Could an egg ever grow to be the size of a beach ball?”
Details
Type Book ChapterPub Date 1/1/2007Stock # PB210X_14