Mechanism
Scale Invariance
TL;DR
Scale invariance means the relationship has the same form at all scales.
Scale invariance means the relationship has the same form at all scales. In metabolic scaling, doubling body mass increases metabolic rate by factor of 2^0.75 ≈ 1.68, regardless of whether doubling from 1 gram to 2 grams (bacteria to protozoa) or from 1000 kg to 2000 kg (cow to elephant). There is no characteristic scale - the same mathematical rule applies across the entire range.
Business Application of Scale Invariance
Scale invariance in power laws means the same distributional pattern holds whether examining the top 1% or top 20%, creating predictable relationships that, once recognized, allow strategic optimization despite extreme ranges in size.