Table 1 Estimates of diffusion times for typical cellular structures, computed from the relation t = x2/D using D = 10–5cm2/s
x | t | Example |
|---|---|---|
10 nm | 100 ns | thickness of cell membrane |
1 μ m | 1 ms | size of mitochondrion |
10 μ m | 100 ms | radius of small mammalian cell |
250 μ m | 60 s | radius of squid giant axon |
1 mm | 16.7 min | half-thickness of frog sartorius muscle |
2 mm | 1.1 h | half-thickness of lens in the eye |
5 mm | 6.9 h | radius of mature ovarian follicle |
2 cm | 2.6 d | thickness of ventricular myocardium |
1m | 31.7 yrs | length of a nerve axon |