SA:V is used to explain the diffusion of small molecules, like Oxygen and Carbon dioxide between air, blood and cells, Water loss by animals, bacterial morphogenesis, organism's Thermoregulation, design of artificial bone tissue, artificial lungs and many more biological and biotechnological structures. Good examples for such processes are processes governed by the heat equation, i.e., diffusion and heat transfer by conduction. It is used to explain the relation between structure and function in processes occurring through the surface AND the volume.
SA:V is an important concept in science and engineering.
The surface-area-to-volume ratio, also called the surface-to-volume ratio and variously denoted sa/vol or SA:V, is the amount of surface area per unit volume of an object or collection of objects. Their intercepts with the dashed lines show that when the volume increases 8 (2³) times, the surface area increases 4 (2²) times.
Graphs of surface area, A against volume, V of the Platonic solids and a sphere, showing that the surface area decreases for rounder shapes, and the surface-area-to-volume ratio decreases with increasing volume.
