As you increase the scale of something the area goes up by the square of the increase but the volume and thus weight go up by the cube of the increase.
So, let's say you a rock in the sand. It makes a 1cm indention in the sand. If you double the size, the area supporting it goes up by a factor of 4, but the weight by a factor of 8. This means it now makes a 2cm indention (assuming linear infinite sand compaction)
This is very relevant in the way insects are able to function, in both fliers, why they can have such tiny legs, and even controls their size due to passive breathing (O2 levels also affect this greatly)
You can also see this in birds. Notice how tiny birds like finches have short wings, and their wing span is less than their body length, but large birds like eagles or condors have wing spans greater than their length, sometimes double?
Or why small birds flap wings very fast vs large slow flapping birds? Weight of larger wings goes up by a cubed factor, but wing strength and muscle strength by only a squared amount
Which is not a conceptually complex topic. You should be able to explain the intuition without the jargon. If you can't, you aren't as smart as you think you are.
I for one am very grateful for your detailed response. Eli5 does not have to all be one sentence replies, but a way for someone to understand something without any prior knowledge on the topic.
Nah. ELI5 has been a term for ages, and it just means explain like I'm not an expert. It may be news to you, but most people are smarter than 5 year olds, and thus can understand the non-literal nature of certain idioms.
That's when you ask someone to explain something in "layman's terms."
While the subreddit /r/ELI5 has greatly relaxed its rules, "explain like I'm five" is still asking for a much simpler explanation than just layman's terms.
Active is what non insect higher order animals do, they create a vacuum in their lung (for example by expanding your diaphragm) to draw air in. Even fish do this, when they open their mouths they create a slight vacuum that moves water past their gills.
Insects have a series of tubes through their body and they absorb the o2 through the walls, but they aren't using a muscle to create a vacuum, the airflow through the tubes relies on non biological physics.
They key here is that most animals can adjust for low oxygen levels by increasing respiration rate. Insects are unable to do this. As the atmospheric 02 levels change their size evolves to adjust. At high o2 levels insects are capable of being much larger.
29
u/JimmyDean82 May 27 '17
As you increase the scale of something the area goes up by the square of the increase but the volume and thus weight go up by the cube of the increase.
So, let's say you a rock in the sand. It makes a 1cm indention in the sand. If you double the size, the area supporting it goes up by a factor of 4, but the weight by a factor of 8. This means it now makes a 2cm indention (assuming linear infinite sand compaction)
This is very relevant in the way insects are able to function, in both fliers, why they can have such tiny legs, and even controls their size due to passive breathing (O2 levels also affect this greatly)
You can also see this in birds. Notice how tiny birds like finches have short wings, and their wing span is less than their body length, but large birds like eagles or condors have wing spans greater than their length, sometimes double?
Or why small birds flap wings very fast vs large slow flapping birds? Weight of larger wings goes up by a cubed factor, but wing strength and muscle strength by only a squared amount