Word.ws English Dictionary

square-cube law

square-cube law noun: the mathematical principle that, as a shape grows in size, its volume grows faster than its surface area. Specifically, when an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new surface area is proportional to the square of the multiplier and its new volume is proportional to the cube of the multiplier.

Noun

the square-cube law

  1. The mathematical principle that, as a shape grows in size, its volume grows faster than its surface area. Specifically, when an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new surface area is proportional to the square of the multiplier and its new volume is proportional to the cube of the multiplier.
    • The square-cube law helps to explain why large mammals like elephants have a harder time cooling themselves than smaller ones like mice.
    Synonyms:
    cube-square law

Synonyms of square-cube law

Questions about square-cube law

What does square-cube law mean?
Square-cube law means the mathematical principle that, as a shape grows in size, its volume grows faster than its surface area. Specifically, when an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new surface area is proportional to the square of the multiplier and its new volume is proportional to the cube of the multiplier.
What part of speech is square-cube law?
Square-cube law is a noun.

Words near square-cube law in the dictionary

  1. Square-1
  2. square-bracket
  3. square-bracketed
  4. square-bracketing
  5. square-brackets
  6. square-cube law
  7. square-dance
  8. square-danced
  9. square-dances
  10. square-dancing
  11. square-eyed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: square-cube law (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “square-cube law.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/square-cube_law. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.