• Question: would a cell be the equivalent to a gran of sand to a small insect? or is still microscopic for them aswell?

    Asked by kirkham to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      it depends on which cell. Do you know that an egg is just a big single cell?

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      The ostrich egg is the biggest known single cell there is infact.

    • Photo: Ben Smart

      Ben Smart answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      If we (humans) are about 1.8m tall, and a grain of sand is about 0.5mm (0.0005m) wide, then that’s a scale of 0.0005/1.8
      If we say that the insect is about 1cm (0.01m) long, then something that would be “equivalent to a gran of sand to a small insect” would be 0.01 * (0.0005/1.8) = 0.000002778m which is about 3micrometres.
      Human cells are about 10 to 100 micrometres. Bacteria are about 1 to 10 micrometres. So in terms of scale, you’re right, they would be roughly equivalent. 🙂

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