Three ways to describe metaphase

Answer 1

Metaphase is a phase of mitosis (the division of the nucleus of a cell) where the chromosomes align in the middle of the cell and the spindles are fully formed. You can remember the phases of mitosis by remembering the phrase IPMAT. Each letter stands for a phase in mitosis.

I P M A T

n r e n e

t o t a l

e p a p o

r h p h p

p a h a h

h s a s a

a e s e s

s e e

e

You can remember what each happens in each phase by replacing the phases in ipmat with the words to remember them. Replace I with introduction (because interphase is when the cells are growing through the growing process, it is really the introduction to the process of cell division), P with pairs (because in prophrase the chromatids ,later to be called chromosomes when they pair up, pair up together), M with middle (because in metaphase the chromosomes, before called chromatids, move to the middle of the cell), A with apart (because in anaphase the chromosomes split apart into the two different corners), and T for two (because in telophase, after the chromosomes had split and been duplicated and went to the different corners, the the cell splits into two with an exact copy of the DNA of the original cell in the second cell).

If you want more information you can go to this website: http://www.phschool.com/science/biology_place/biocoach/mitosisisg/prophase.HTML. If you want to see the other stages you can backtrack or forward in the website by clicking next concept or previous concept on the bottom of the webpage.