In meiosis, why does the secondary oocyte divide unevenly?

Question

please explain in simple terms

Answer 1

This has to do with the amount of cytoplasm the oocyte needs to be viable.

There is an uneven distribution of cytoplasm and organelles because the bulk of the cytoplasm and organelles are going to one oocyte. But this leads to a logical question: why don't females just make one oocyte?

The answer: This has to do with the distribution of chromosomes. Nuclear division is needed to produce the correct number of chromosomes in the oocyte, but there is simply not enough cytoplasm to produce all viable oocytes, so some are unviable (polar bodies). Polar bodies have the right number of chromosomes, but not enough cytoplasm to be useful.

The oocytes with inadequate cytoplasm are referred to as polar bodies and there are three polar bodies produced for every one viable oocyte.