1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910678252303321

Autore

Rubin Alan E.

Titolo

Surface/Volume : How Geometry Explains Why Grain Elevators Explode, Hummingbirds Hover, and Asteroids are Colder than Ice / / by Alan E. Rubin

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer Nature Switzerland : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2023

ISBN

9783031237492

9783031237485

Edizione

[1st ed. 2023.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (187 pages)

Disciplina

516.36

620.44

Soggetti

Engineering mathematics

Engineering - Data processing

Planetary science

Engineering geology

Mathematical and Computational Engineering Applications

Planetary Science

Geoengineering

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- A Truncated History of Geometry -- Middle School Math -- Asteroids, Moons, Planets, and Meteorites -- Geologic Processes -- Geometry of Life -- Biochemistry -- Chemical Reactions -- Ecology -- Manufacturing.

Sommario/riassunto

This book explains that diffusion, osmosis, dissolution, evaporation, and heat loss all preferentially affect small bodies due to their high surface/volume ratios. Because surface area increases as the square of length, but volume (and mass) increase as the cube, large objects have low surface/volume ratios and small objects have high surface/volume ratios. This simple physical constraint governs much of the physical world. It accounts for why the Earth has active volcanoes, but the Moon does not, why the human brain has numerous folds, why deciduous trees lose their leaves every Fall, and why nanoparticles of gold melt at



surprisingly low temperatures. It is a phenomenon well known to every scientist, but this book is the first comprehensive treatment of this effect.