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Skills 8 Calculating Area and Volume

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22 views

Skills 8 Calculating Area and Volume

Uploaded by

zahrafatimakhan0
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Skills 8 Calculating area and volume

These calculations have been covered during GCSE maths, and you need to be aware
that they could come up in the context of an AS/A Level Biology assessment. The
formulae will not be provided for these calculations.
You need to be able to recall the following list of formulae:

1) 𝐶𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 of a circle = 2𝜋𝑟, 𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑠


2) 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑙𝑒 = 𝜋𝑟2
3) 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑢𝑏𝑜𝑖𝑑 = 2(𝑏ℎ + 𝑏𝑙 + ℎ𝑙), 𝑏 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒, 𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
4) 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑢𝑏𝑜𝑖𝑑 = ℎ𝑏𝑙
5) 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 = 2𝜋𝑟(𝑟 + 𝑙), 𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠, 𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓
𝑐𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟
6) 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 = 𝜋𝑟2𝑙
7) 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 = 4𝜋𝑟2, 𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑠
8) 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 = 4 /3 𝜋𝑟3

(1) A student used a potometer to measure the movement of water through the shoot of a plant.
The potometer is shown in Figure 5. As water is lost from the shoot, it is replaced by water from
the capillary tube
In one experiment, the air bubble moved 7.5 mm in 15 minutes. The diameter of the capillary

tube was 1.0 mm.


Calculate the rate of water uptake by the shoot in this experiment.
Give your answer in mm3 per hour.
(The area of a circle is found using the formula, area = πr 2) [2
marks]

(2) The scientists determined the mean diameter of muscle fibres in trained mice using an
optical microscope to examine sections of muscle tissue.
Page | 1
The circular area (πr2) of one field of view was 1.25 mm2.
The diameter of this area was equal to the diameter of 15 muscle fibres.
Using this information, calculate the mean diameter in µm (micrometres) of muscle fibres in this
section of tissue. [2
marks]

(3) The drawing shows part of the lower leaf epidermis of sorghum.

(a) Calculate the number of stomata per mm2 of the leaf surface. Show your working.
(2)

(4) Scientists investigated the effect of lipase and a 3% bile salts solution on the digestion of
triglycerides. The graph below shows their results.

The scientists also incubated triglycerides with different concentrations of bile salts. After 30
minutes they measured the diameter of the triglyceride droplets. They used the results to
Page | 2
calculate the mean radius of the droplets at each concentration. The table below shows their
results.

Concentration of bile
0 1 2 3 4 5
salts /%

Mean radius of
triglyceride droplet / 6 5 4 3 2 1
μm

(a) Describe how you would use a microscope to find the mean diameter of triglyceride droplets
on a slide.
(3)

(b) The ratio of mean radius of triglyceride droplets in bile salts at a concentration of 0% to the
mean radius in bile salts at a concentration of 3% is 2 : 1.

What is the ratio of their surface areas?

You can calculate the surface area of a droplet from the formula

A = 4πr2

Where A = surface area


r = radius
π = 3.14 (2)

(5) The cone density is highest on the fovea in the centre of the retina. In a human fovea
there are 150 000 cones per mm2. The diameter of a human fovea is 1.4 mm.
Calculate the number of cones on the human fovea.
The formula for calculating the area of a circle is πr2.
(2)

(6) The diagram shows a cross-section of an artery.

Calculate the cross-sectional area of the lumen of the artery shown in the diagram. Show your
working.

The area of a circle is given by πr2, where r is the radius of a circle (π = 3.14). (3)

Page | 3
(7) The gel beads were all similar sizes. Use the formula below to calculate the volume of one of
the beads with a 3.0 mm diameter.

Volume of sphere = πr3 (1)

(8) The table shows the relative thickness of layers in the walls of an artery and a vein.

Layer in wall Thickness / µm

Artery Vein

Endothelium 20 20

Smooth muscle 490 240

Elastic tissue 370 240

Connective
120 120
tissue

(a) Use information from the table to suggest the thickness of a capillary wall.
Give the reason for your answer.
(1)

(b)The diameter of the artery was 4 mm. Calculate the diameter of the lumen of this artery.
(2)

(9) An agar plate was flooded with a culture of a species of bacterium usually found in the
mouth. Four sterile paper discs, A, B, C and D, each containing a different brand of mouthwash,
were then placed on the agar plate. The drawing shows the appearance of the plate after it had
been incubated at 37°C for three days.

The effectiveness of a mouthwash can be measured by calculating the total area of a paper disc
and the clear zone around it. The area of a circle is given by πr2, where r is the radius of the
circle. Calculate how many times more effective mouthwash C is than mouthwash B.

Page | 4

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