The HPS has issued its standard, Surface and Volume Radioactivity Standards for Unconditional Clearance.

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But as an object gets smaller, the ratio between its surface area and its volume rises.

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Microplastics have larger surface to volume ratios, potentially facilitating contaminant exchange and have been shown to be ingested by a range of organisms.

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This, in turn, means clever engineering can increase the surface area (and thus the storage capacity) without increasing the volume.

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Airships demonstrate a law of increasing returns: doubling the length increases the surface area (and hence weight) by a factor of four while the volume (and hence lifting capacity) goes up by a factor of eight.

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After all, 10% of its volume is typically above water and the other 90% is below the surface.

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Satellites have long been used to track ice extent (area), but calculating the thickness of the marine floes requires the overflying spacecraft to gauge the difference between the top of the ice surface and the top of the water - a relatively simple calculation then gives the overall volume.

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United Utilities said it was hampered by "the sheer volume of water and by the amount of damage that was caused to the road surface".

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