Surface-area-to-volume ratio Surface-area-to-volume ratio 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. In chemical reactions involving a solid material, the surface area to volume ratio is an important factor for the reactivity, that is, the rate at which the chemical reaction will proceed. For a given volume, the object with the smallest surface area (and therefore with the smallest SA:V) is the sphere, a consequence of the isoperimetric inequality in 3 dimensions. By contrast, objects with tiny spikes will have
Gabriel's Horn diameter of the throat of the horn. The converse phenomenon of Gabriel's horn – a surface of revolution that has a "finite" surface area but an "infinite" volume – cannot occur: Let be a continuously differentiable function. Write for the solid of revolution of the graph about the -axis. "If the surface area of is finite, then so is the volume." Since the lateral surface area is finite, the limit superior: Therefore, there exists a such that the supremum } is finite. Hence, Finally, the volume: Therefore: "if the area is finite, then the volume must also be finite." Gabriel's