Someone argues: "Kleiber's law fits mammalian basal metabolic rate with an exponent…
PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Biophysics & Medical Physics · Bioelectricity, the senses and the physics of the body · Bioelectricity, the senses and the physics of the body
Forces, Machines and Signals, Ch Bones, blood and body size
Problem
Someone argues: "Kleiber's law fits mammalian basal metabolic rate with an exponent close to 3/4. West, Brown and Enquist derived an exponent of exactly 3/4 from a space-filling vascular network with size-invariant capillaries. Since theory and data agree, the origin of the 3/4 exponent is now settled by first-principles physics."
((a)) Identify what is wrong with this argument.
((b)) Give the measured exponent that complicates it, and say what is needed to distinguish that measurement from a rival 2/3 surface-area law.