Kleiber's Law
Formal Statement
"Metabolic rate scales with body mass to the 3/4 power (M^0.75)"
Mathematical Form
B = B₀M^(3/4), where B is metabolic rate, M is mass, and B₀ is a constant Description
Metabolic rate - the rate at which organisms process energy - scales with body mass raised to the 3/4 power across virtually all life forms, from bacteria to whales. This means larger organisms are more metabolically efficient per unit mass.
Biological Implication
A mouse consumes about 30 times more oxygen per gram of body weight than an elephant. This scaling relationship constrains everything from lifespan (larger animals live longer) to heart rate (larger animals have slower heart rates) to the structure of distribution networks (circulatory systems, bronchial trees).
Business Implication
Organizations exhibit similar scaling: larger companies are more 'metabolically efficient' per employee in some ways (economies of scale) but also slower and less adaptable. Coordination costs, communication overhead, and bureaucratic metabolism all follow power-law relationships with organizational size.