Surface area representing a cell as an idealized sphere of radius "r", the volume and surface area are, respectively, "V" = 4/3 π "r"; "SA" = 4 π "r". The resulting surface area to volume ratio is therefore 3/"r". Thus, if a cell has a radius of 1 μm, the SA:V ratio is 3; whereas if the radius of the cell is instead 10 μm, then the SA:V ratio becomes 0.3. With a cell radius of 100, SA:V ratio is 0.03. Thus, the surface area falls off steeply with increasing volume. Surface area The surface area of a solid object is a
Polar surface area Polar surface area The polar surface area (PSA) or topological polar surface area (TPSA) of a molecule is defined as the surface sum over all polar atoms, primarily oxygen and nitrogen, also including their attached hydrogen atoms. PSA is a commonly used medicinal chemistry metric for the optimization of a drug's ability to permeate cells. Molecules with a polar surface area of greater than 140 angstroms squared tend to be poor at permeating cell membranes. For molecules to penetrate the blood–brain barrier (and thus act on receptors in the central nervous system), a PSA less than 90 angstroms squared is