Aim: To investigate the effect of size on the rate of heat loss.

Hypothesis
Larger animals lose heat at a lower rate than smaller animals. As the organism gets bigger the volume and surface area ratio decreases. This means that there is less surface area to lose heat from. If we use penguins as an example, the larger penguins live closer to the poles that the smaller penguins. So smaller animals have a higher surface area to volume ration and larger animals are the opposite. As the size of the animal increases the rate f heat loss decreases. The rate of heat loss depends on the surface area to volume ratio.
The total heat production of ‘warm – blooded’ animals- depends upon the volume of metabolically active tissues whilst the rate of heat loss depends upon the surface area. For this reason, animals living in colder climates tend to be large whilst living in a hot climate they are generally smaller.
This is known as Bergmann’s rule and is observed in many species. The metabolic rate per gram of the smallest mammals is approximately...