Kleiber's law: metabolic rate scales as M^(3/4) across 27 orders of magnitude — from mitochondria to blue whales. West, Brown & Enquist (1997) derived this from fractal branching networks that minimize energy dissipation while filling volume. Explore how scaling exponents vary across physiological variables.
B = aM^b
| Animal | Mass (kg) | B (W) |
|---|---|---|
| Mouse | 0.02 | 0.28 |
| Rat | 0.3 | 1.97 |
| Cat | 3 | 11.7 |
| Dog | 20 | 53 |
| Human | 70 | 105 |
| Horse | 500 | 457 |
| Elephant | 3000 | 1785 |
| Whale | 100000 | 28000 |