Re: [Phys-l] tutorial on scaling laws

["Polvani, Donald G." <donald.polvani@ngc.com>]

John Denker wrote:

> recently put together a tutorial on scaling laws:
> http://www.av8n.com/physics/scaling.htm

> Comments and suggestions are always welcome.  Since this is still a
work in progress, now is a particularly timely time for comments.

I found the tutorial quite interesting.  I have no substantial comments
about content, but two minor editorial details and one suggestion:

1) In Section 1 I found the split column display (at least, it was split
on my PC) confusing to read.  The other sections were not split and I
found them easier to read.
2) Scaling law 13 is missing the word "like" as in: scales inversely
"like" the square root of the wavelength
3) You might consider including a section on simple dimensional
analysis.  A really simple example (which I find, however, very useful
in practice is to check the units of both sides of the equation to make
sure they are the same.  I recently saved myself much time in checking
the answers in a peer-reviewed journal article by noticing that the
units on both sides weren't the same and so the equation wasn't correct.
I catch all kinds of errors I myself make by making sure the equations I
end up with have consistent and correct units.

I look forward to reading the fractal section.

Don Polvani
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Undersea Systems
Annapolis, MD