Multicellular organism

Question

One multicellular organism is a cube.  Each of its sides is 3 cm long.  Each of its cells is 1 cm3.  How many cells does it have?  If each side doubles in length, how many cells will it then have?

Answer 1

All right, think of this as a 3D math problem, therefore treating is as a matter of determining volume since there are three dimensions involved–length, width, height.

 

You know that the organism is 3cm on each side, so all together it has a volume of 3cm by 3cm by 3cm or 27cm³ (3•3•3=27). Because each cell within is 1cm³, there must be 27 of them since 1cm³•27 is 27cm³.

 

Now, if each side doubles in length, then the organism has a volume of 6cm by 6cm by 6cm (3cm•2=6cm). Doing a similar calculation as before, the number of cells equals the volume of the larger organism since each cell within still has the same dimensions of 1cm³. Therefore the new number of cells would be 6•6•6 or 212.

Answer 2

If the multicellular organism is a cube, that means the area of the organism is equal to length x width x height. Solving for the area, you get 3x3x3, which equals 27 cm^3. If the area is 27 cm^3 and each cell is 1 cm^3, that means that 27 of these 1 cm^3 cells can fit inside this organism. Thus, your answer is 27 cells.