why is cell division important in terms of the cell meeting its nutrient requirements e.g.oxygen?

Answer 1

Hi, Jasmine!

In short, the reason that cell division is important for a cell to be able to get enough oxygen (and anything else it might absorb across that membrane) is because a smaller cell has a higher surface area to volume ratio.

You can think of a cell as being sort of like a sphere, with a surface area of 4π r² and a volume of (4/3)π r³. Notice how r is squared in the formula for surface area but cubed in the formula for volume. As the radius of a cell increases, its volume increases at a higher rate than its surface area. Thus, a larger cell has a lot of volume -- and a lot of organelles and chemical reactions to maintain -- but less of an ability to gather the resources it needs to sustain itself. When the cell divides, its radius decreases, and so it ends up having more surface area relative to its volume. This means is has a relatively greater amount of membrane to absorb things like oxygen over.

I hope that helps!

Beth