Question

Surface area is an important factor in limiting cell growth because...
a. waste products cannot leave the cell if it is too small.
b. the cell may become too large to take in enough food and to remove enough wastes.
c. materials cannot enter the cell if it is too large.
d. the cell can burst if the membrane becomes too large.

Answer 1

Probably B, but let me verify.

Answer 2

Substances can not enter or leave the cell in numbers large enough to meet the cell's needs

As the cell grows it needs more and more nutrients to sustain itself. However when the cell grows the volume increases more compared to its surface area. Since there is not a significant increase in surface area of the cell enough nutrients to sustain a larger volume cannot enter the cell--the cell does NOT burst but instead usually triggers apoptosis-programmed cell death.

So that makes the answer B.

Answer 3

Source: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080622164556AARB3OG

Answer 4

The cell may become too large to take in enough food and to remove enough wastes. Food intake and waste removal are processes that can happen only at the cell membrane. However, as a cell becomes larger, the ratio of its surface area to its volume decreases. This means that a larger cell will eventually have metabolic requirements due to its size that cannot be met by the limited size of the cell membrane. Some cells, such as nerve cells, become very long and thin in order to achieve large sizes despite this limitation.