How is it that the intracellular levels of K are higher than extracellular levels in animal cells?
lon channels are ‘gated’, i.e., they may be open or closed. The Na, K, ATPase create a charge imbalance across the plasma membrane by carrying 3Na out of the cell for every 2K ion carried inside making the inside negative relative to outside.
The membrane is said to be polarised. That is the reason the intracellular levels of K are higher than extracellular levels in animals cells.