Cells R Us

In class on Tuesday, we constructed a life size model of a cell. Everyone in class created an organelle to make up part of the cell. I created the Golgi apparatus. The Golgi apparatus is where proteins are processed, sorted and delivered. It contains enzymes that make changes to the proteins. Some proteins are stored within the apparatus while others are sent to other organelles or outside of the cell entirely. The approximate real size of the Golgi apparatus is 10 um (micrometer). The magnified size of my model was 40 cm. I'm not sure what type of cell it was, considering that there were some organelles present that  were only found in animals, some only found in plants and some found in both. If I had to make a final guess, however, I'd guess that we built a plant cell, considering that one of the organelle's made was chloroplast. Since chloroplast only helps with photosynthesis, I'll guess that it was a plant cell. The largest organelles were the nucleus and Golgi apparatus, the smallest were the ribosomes and mitochondria. If I looked at a cell under a microscope, I'm certain that I'd be able to see the nucleus and possibly the Golgi apparatus. In order to see the really miniscule organelles, I'd have to use an electron microscope. I was surprised by exactly how small the ribosomes were, and the fact that the average amount of ribosomes in a cell is 15,000. I guess that, considering how small a cell is, I didn't think there would be something so tiny inside of it.