Claudia Hofford

Honors Anatomy and Physiology

22 September 2016
Mrs. Babson

Measuring Cells Lab

Purpose:
The purpose of this lab was to accurately measure the sizes of a sample of cells and their
organelles.
Results/Data:
Table 1: Cell and Organelle Measurements Using ImageJ
Structure

Diameter
(m)

Diameter
(m)

[Animal
Cell
TEM]

[Organelle
TEM]

Whole Cell

10.212

NA

Nucleus

6.150

% of
Cell

General Observations

NA

100%

The whole cell was not

available because the
image only showed part
of the cell.

5.913

5.913/10.212

58%

I had to estimate the

diameter of the nucleus
because it was not
perfectly circular.

Mitochondrion 1.230

2.142

2.142/10.212

21%

Mitochondrions have
different sizes and are
longer in their shapewhich could result in
many different diameters
producing different
results.

0.751

0.568

0.568/10.212

5.6%

There were many

lysosomes in the cell;
there were all different
sizes-some larger and
others smaller which
would produce different
results depending on the

Lysosome

Size Ratio
(Organelle:Cell)

particular lysosome
measured.
Vesicle

0.160

0.193

0.193/10.212

1.889

Vesicles come in
different sizes and
different diameters
therefore leading to
different results.

Discussion Questions:
Explain why microscopes are necessary to examine cells.
Cell are the smallest structural and functional units of the entire body. Microscopes are
necessary to examine cells because not only are they extremely small and impossible to observe
with the naked eye, but most are very transparent, especially when viewed under a light
microscope and must be treated with specific stains.
Describe the differences that you see in the cytoplasm between the Animal Cell LM (light
micrograph) and the Animal Cell TEM.
Between the cytoplasm in the Animal Cell LM and the Animal Cell Tem
Describe two advantages and two disadvantages of each type of micrograph.
Some of the micrographs did not contain the full image of the cell or organelle and other images
had to be used for actuations. In addition, the diameter was difficult to determine because none
of the organelles were perfectly circular.
Describe how the organelle measurements compare using the whole cell and the organelle
images? Would you expect them to be the same regardless of magnification? Explain.
Yes, I would expect them to be the same if they were set to the same scales or different scales
because magnification of the image does not change the composition, structure, or volume of the
organelle or cell; it simply changes the perspective.
Summarize the relative size of each type of organelle in light of the whole cell.
When compared to the entire cell, a sense of how small each organelle is comes to mind. These
organelles are already being measured in micrometers and much smaller than the actual size of
the whole cell.
Explain why there is a lower limitation to cell size and why eukaryotic cells are considerably
larger than
There is a lower limitation to cell size because cells need to be big enough to hold their essential
organelles to function. However it cannot be so large that it would make cellular processes take
longer due to the distance between organelles--resulting in the cell not being able to function.

Analysis:
During this lab I collected the measurements of cells and their organelles, calculated the size
ratio between the cell and a particular organelle, and discovered the percent of the cell that a
specific organelle retained. One example of a piece of data collected was the Nucleus in the
Animal Cell. The measurements of the nucleus and all of the organelles were difficult to
determine commonly because they were not perfectly circular and therefore different results
could be collected when measuring the diameter. I obtained a diameter of 5.913 micrometers for
the nucleus of this particular animal cell. Through using the estimated diameter of the animal
cell, I was able to calculate the percent of cell that the organelle occupied. There were many
possible errors that inevitably affected the collected data including; estimating the diameters of
organelles, and rushing through measurements which could have affected the accuracy of the
measurements. In future labs involving ImageJ to measure objects, I would keep in mind to take
my time with each measurement for the most accurate results.
Conclusion:
In this lab I was able to find the percent of the animal cell that organelle occupied, as well as
their respective diameters.