Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Bejan A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3426796 | biostudies-other | 2012
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
Scientific reports 20120824
Here we show that constructal-law physics unifies the design of animate and inanimate movement by requiring that larger bodies move farther, and their movement on the landscape last longer. The life span of mammals must scale as the body mass (M) raised to the power 1/4, and the distance traveled during the lifetime must increase with body size. The same size effect on life span and distance traveled holds for the other flows that move mass on earth: atmospheric and oceanic jets and plumes, rive ...[more]