A Matter of the Nuances of Scales in the of the Author K.C.Cole - Book Report/Review Example

K.C.Cole in the 5th chapter of her work “The Universe and the Teacup The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty” shows the nuances of scales. Fleas can do immense work, jump a hundred times higher their height, and care 160,000 times larger their weight. A mouse can be unharmed after falling down from the scale because of her size. An elephant, in his turn, has no choice to stay alive after falling. Atom-sized things behave differently than molecule-sized things or human-size things.

Molecule-sized matters can do nothing against electrical forces (sugar grains stick to the fingers), but when it comes to large-scale matters-gravity rules (all the things that are larger than asteroid acquire round or roundish shape ). Time goes faster in the world of the small, but it is proved by the biologist Stephen Jay Gould that all beings from the smallest to the biggest have their own internal clocks. That’s why the life of the mouse doesn’t feel shorter to a mouse than our life feels to us.

Complexity also changes with scale. Earth seems quite simple(a small dot) from far enough, but coming closer you see the patterns of land and water, closer- and human beings become visible. The closer we look at something, the more complicated it seems and vice versa.