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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Dimensional analysis does not determine a mass exponent for metabolic scaling.

Authors: Butler, J P; Feldman, H A; Fredberg, J J

Published In Am J Physiol, (1987 Jul)

Abstract: In several recent article, Heusner used dimensional reasoning to derive important biological conclusions regarding the scaling of metabolism with body mass [Respir. Physiol. 48: 13-25, 1982; J. Appl. Physiol. 54: 867-873, 1983; Am. J. Physiol. 246 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 15): R839-R845, 1984]. We demonstrate errors in the derivation and show that dimensional analysis, correctly applied, not only fails to determine the mass scaling exponent but also fails to constrain the relationship to a power law at all.

PubMed ID: 3605384 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication

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