Question

1. Two identically sized and shaped boneless skinless chicken breasts are purchased for dinner. One chicken breast is cut into approximately 1-inch pieces, while the second is left whole. Both will be cooked at the same temperature and in the same manner. Using information learned about surface-to-volume ratios, which will cook faster? Justify your response.

2. Researchers have discovered that desert hares lose heat through their ears to cool themselves. Given this and knowledge of surface-to-volume ratios, propose an explanation as to why hares that live in hot climates (such as the desert) have such long, flattened ears.

Answer 1

1.​​ The chicken breast cut into 1-inch pieces will be cooked first compared to the whole chicken breast. This is because the time taken is inversely proportional to the surface area. This means that more is the surface area, lesser the time is taken to get heated up. In here, the total surface area of the 1-inch pieces of chicken breast have larger surface area in comparison to the whole chicken that is why the the time took to get cooked up is lesser in the 1-inch pieces of chicken breasts in comparison to the whole chicken breast.

2. In tropical zone, animals like hares live in warm conditions and to prevail that extreme weather they have larger ears to dissipate more heat in order to remain cool. This is due to the fact that larger ears provide greater surface area which allows heat to be dissipated at a faster rate. The blood that moves through the ear comes close to the surface of the skin and releases excess heat into the environment. The more surface area that is exposed to the environment, the more heat can be dissipated from the body. This makes the animals to feel cold. Opposite is in the case of cold environment where animals like polar bears have shorter ears which prevents the heat from dissipating off the body and they remain warm.