New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies?
The necessity of the mathematical description of living processes and the recent advances in theoretical syntheses that fit surprisingly well with real data have led many scientists to experiment with new "generalizations," beginning with allometric equations. I present here, briefly, why...
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doaj-ba3b989513684a2dbfeabfa4bd72fd482020-11-24T20:49:03ZengBMCBiological Research0716-97602005-01-01381272910.4067/S0716-97602005000100004S0716-97602005000100004New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies?ROBERTO F NESPOLO0Universidad Austral de ChileThe necessity of the mathematical description of living processes and the recent advances in theoretical syntheses that fit surprisingly well with real data have led many scientists to experiment with new "generalizations," beginning with allometric equations. I present here, briefly, why caution is needed when allometric equations are multiplied or divided to make new ones. This practice is flawed by old and recognized problems, such as the fallacy of averages combined with misunderstandings that include error propagation, misuse of statistics and confounding scale.http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-97602005000100004&lng=en&tlng=enFallacy of averagesdimensional analysisinvariantsallometric equationserror term |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
ROBERTO F NESPOLO |
spellingShingle |
ROBERTO F NESPOLO New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies? Biological Research Fallacy of averages dimensional analysis invariants allometric equations error term |
author_facet |
ROBERTO F NESPOLO |
author_sort |
ROBERTO F NESPOLO |
title |
New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies? |
title_short |
New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies? |
title_full |
New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies? |
title_fullStr |
New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies? |
title_full_unstemmed |
New invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies? |
title_sort |
new invariants and dimensionless numbers: futile renaissance of old fallacies? |
publisher |
BMC |
series |
Biological Research |
issn |
0716-9760 |
publishDate |
2005-01-01 |
description |
The necessity of the mathematical description of living processes and the recent advances in theoretical syntheses that fit surprisingly well with real data have led many scientists to experiment with new "generalizations," beginning with allometric equations. I present here, briefly, why caution is needed when allometric equations are multiplied or divided to make new ones. This practice is flawed by old and recognized problems, such as the fallacy of averages combined with misunderstandings that include error propagation, misuse of statistics and confounding scale. |
topic |
Fallacy of averages dimensional analysis invariants allometric equations error term |
url |
http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-97602005000100004&lng=en&tlng=en |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT robertofnespolo newinvariantsanddimensionlessnumbersfutilerenaissanceofoldfallacies |
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1716806920276279296 |