Surface Area to Volume Ratios – Christmas Lectures with Philip Morrison

The mathematicians of Lilliput assumed that Gulliver would need 1728 times as much food as an individual Lilliput. Philip Morrison shows why this is not true, using surface area to volume ratios.
Watch the full lecture: http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1968/gullivers-travels/meat-and-drink-sufficient?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_term=description

Philip Morrison’s Christmas Lectures in 1968 focussed on the importance of scale in science. Taking inspiration from Dean Swift’s Gulliver in the lands of Lilliput and Brobdingnag , we go on a journey from the fundamental building blocks of the universe to the stellar size of of our galaxy.

In his second lecture Philip Morrison looks at how big and small systems operate differently, on a chemical, biological and physical level.

Watch the full series: http://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1968/gullivers-travels?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_term=description

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