Final answer:
The advantage of keeping the surface area to volume ratio high in a cell is to maximize the membrane surface available for the exchange of nutrients, water, and waste, which ensures efficiency as the cell's volume increases. This ratio is critical for cellular health and metabolic exchanges.
Step-by-step explanation:
Advantage of High Surface Area to Volume Ratio in a Cell
The advantage of keeping the surface area to volume ratio high in a cell is primarily A. Maximizes the relative surface area to exchange nutrients, water, and waste. Cells rely on their surface area to facilitate the diffusion of substances in and out of the cell. A higher ratio ensures that there is enough membrane surface to efficiently exchange these substances relative to the cell's volume. As a cell grows, its volume increases faster than its surface area, hence decreasing the surface area to volume ratio. This scenario challenges the cell's ability to take in nutrients and excrete waste sufficiently.
For a spherical cell, the formulas for surface area and volume highlight this relationship, with surface area being 4πr² and volume being 4/3πr³. A cell with a higher ratio will also be more efficient as it grows because it can divide or develop specialized organelles to increase efficiency. In contrast, a cell with too large a volume may not support the necessary rate of diffusion, leading to cell division or death if the surface area can't sustain its metabolic needs.
Therefore, a high surface area to volume ratio is crucial for efficient metabolic exchanges and cellular health, which is why cells tend to be small, and more sophisticated cells have developed adaptations like organelles and different shapes to maintain a sufficient ratio for survival.