The Principle of Similitude in Biology: From Allometry to the Formulation of Dimensionally Homogenous ‘Laws’

Abstract

ABSTRACTMeaningful laws of nature must be independent of the units employed to measure the variables. The principle of similitude (Rayleigh 1915) or dimensional homogeneity, states that only commensurable quantities (ones having the same dimension) may be compared, therefore, meaningful laws of nature must be homogeneous equations in their various units of measurement, a result which was formalized in the Π theorem (Vaschy 1892; Buckingham 1914). However, most relations in allometry do not satisfy this basic requirement, including the ‘3/4 Law’ (Kleiber 1932) that relates the basal metabolic rate and body mass, besides it is sometimes claimed to be the most fundamental biological rate (Brown et al. 2004) and the closest to a law in life sciences (Brown et al. 2004). Using the Π theorem, here we show that it is possible to construct an unique homogeneous equation for the metabolic rates, in agreement with data in the literature. We find that the variations in the dependence of the metabolic rates on body mass are secondary, coming from variations in the allometric dependence of the heart frequencies. This includes not only different classes of animals (mammals, birds, invertebrates) but also different aerobic conditions (basal and maximal). Our results demonstrate that most of the differences found in the allometric exponents (White et al. 2007) are due to compare incommensurable quantities and that our dimensionally homogenous formula, unify these differences into a single formulation. We discuss the ecological implications of this new formulation in the context of the Malthusian’s, Fenchel’s and Calder’s relations.