I am asking about the MIT course on Classical Mechanics LEC 1. What does Walter Lewin means when he says "size of the animal" ? He relates that with the one dimensional (x axis) view of the animal, such as the one he has drawn on the table? Also, what does he mean by the "size of the animal ^ 3"? Is that the specific formula for calculating the size of a particular animal, which must have 3 dimensions, but it's hidden in the "abstraction" of the letter "S"? I am kind of confused :/

Question

I am asking about the MIT course on Classical Mechanics LEC 1. What does Walter Lewin means when he says "size of the animal" ? He relates that with the one dimensional (x axis) view of the animal, such as the one he has drawn on the table? Also, what does he mean by the "size of the animal ^ 3"? Is that the specific formula for calculating the size of a particular animal, which﻿ must have 3 dimensions, but it's hidden in the "abstraction" of the letter "S"? I am kind of confused :/

jh3power · Answer

The "animal" can be considered as an object(a cube), and he's talking about the size in the direction of one particular dimension. Since the world is 3D, obviously, so when you calculate size^3, you will get the true "size" in 3 dimensions.

anonymous · Answer

Okay, so he is generalizing things. Because, yeah, the size in 3 dimensions will be size^3, but the volume of the horse, mouse, or an alligator is not a perfect cube or a pyramid. I guess we will need a lot of triple integrals.|dw:1370962978551:dw|