Final answer:
A membrane can resist shear, bending, compression, and tension. Cell walls provide tensile strength, while components like lignin offer compressive strength, contributing to a cell's ability to maintain its structure and resist external forces.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ability of a membrane to resist shear, bending, compression, and tension is critical to the structural integrity of cells, particularly those in plants. The cell wall, which is predominantly composed of cellulose or chitin microfibrils, provides resistance to being stretched, offering tensile strength. Similarly, certain cell wall components, such as lignin in plants, contribute to compressive strength, helping the cell resist external forces like gravity and osmotic pressure. Moreover, within certain limits, a cell can withstand and recover from expansion due to internal pressure, a property known as elasticity.
While individual components like cellulose fibers are highly resistant to tension, they have little ability to resist compression. This illustrates the diverse mechanisms by which cells maintain their shape and structure in varying environmental conditions. Larger, terrestrial organisms especially rely on structural strength to avoid being collapsed by external forces such as gravity.