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Old 02-10-2010, 09:30 AM   #22 (permalink)
RobertSmalls
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Nope! Suppose the manhole cover has a diameter 100 times that of the dime. Its circumference is 100 times as large, and so is the force of surface tension. But the manhole cover is 100 times as thick, too, so its volume is 10000 times as large. The density is the same in this example, so mass, weight, and even buoyant forces are 10000 times as large.

Surface forces scale with L^2, while body forces scale with L^3.

The cross-sectional area of muscle and bone scales with L^2 while mass scales with L^3, which is why an elephant can't jump five times its height like a cat, and why we don't see large animals with the proportional strength of an insect.
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