We take a long tour of scaling, a feature of self-similarity found across (probably) all sufficiently large complex systems. We introduce isometry and allometry and talk about a beautiful example of brain matter scaling. Thinky bits and connnecty bits. Other biological examples of scaling provide a start for our tour. Species numbers, metabolic rates, weightlifting, and cancer rates. We then run through a scaling menagerie: world records in running and swimming for people, fastest speeds for organisms of all sizes (swimming, running, flying), an argument for why big things are slower than their body size would predict, the very interesting scaling of city properties (wealth, crime, disease, infrastructure, energy use), times between terror attacks, turbulence, top secret nuclear testing information revealed in a magazine image (decoded with the back of an envelope), a touch of scaling in language with past tense regularization, and the connection between Moore's law and Wright's law. In the middle, we talk our way through the Buckingham π Theorem using the entirely natural example of a platypus pendulum.

Key skill: Back of the envelope calculations. Or front of the Magic Rectangle.

2020/09/02

2:26:03