Figure 4

Approach of cell mass to exponential even if cells had linear synthesis within cell cycle. Panel (a) illustrates cells dividing to produce two, four or eight times the original number of cells (thick line is cell number). The mass (thin line) increases linearly. It is clear that the cell size will not be maintained. In panel (b), even with linear mass growth within the cell cycle (thin line), as cells divide the rate of mass synthesis doubles and then quadruples as cell numbers increase. It is not proposed that mass increases linearly, but merely that even linear synthesis should exhibit, in an uninhibited situation, exponential mass growth.