The unsexiest thing in science › Bernie's Basics (ABC Science)

• The unsexiest thing in science › Bernie's Basics (ABC Science)

  tags: S_V ratio Week 3

  • But the simple relationship between any object's surface area and volume infiltrates every field of science and engineering.
  • Basically it means that as things get bigger, their inside (volume) gets more bigger than their outside (surface area). And it's not just some random relationship. If you double the width of a thing, its surface area gets four times bigger (2²), and it can hold eight times the volume (2³). Make the thing ten times wider and its area grows 100 times bigger (10²), while its volume is 1000 times greater (10³). Whatever factor you increase the length, width or radius by, the area increases by that factor squared, and the volume by that factor cubed.
  • Surfaces are where chemistry takes place, and the bigger the surface area the faster that chemical reactions take place. Small things have a big surface area compared to their size, so breaking a big thing down into lots of smaller parts means you can really ramp up the speed of the reaction.

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