Why do cells spend most of their time in interphase?

Answer 1

Because cells have to grow, and get energy before they can divide. Interphase is the phase in the cell cycle which would be pretty much the normal activity of the cell. Plus, what good is a cell if all it does is divide all the time? In fact, many cells never ever divide. In your body, it's pretty much only stem cells which divide and make new cells.

It's kind of like how humans don't spend most of their life reproducing.

Answer 2

Interphase is the normal life of the cell. The cell grows during interphase and carries on its normal activities.

Many cells never divide and their entire lives are spent in interphase. Even those that are meant to divide - like in a root tip or stem tip - spend the bulk of their time in interphase

Answer 3

Because mitosis is quick, and the cell cycle is divided into mitosis and interphase. For mammallians cells in culture, a typical cell cycle will last 24 to 48 hours, and only 1 hour of that is spent in mitosis. Also all of the above answers are correct.

As a footnote, early frog embryos spend about half their time in mitosis, they get away with this from having a huge egg and lots of precurser material, so that all they need to do is replicate DNA and split the cell; the cell cycle of the early frog embryo is about 45 minutes.

Answer 4

This is because it is when the cell grows and carries out its specific function before it divides. It's just like a human before puberty. You keep growing and doing stuff & then you're ready to reproduce.