Newton's Law: Its Application for Expressing Heat Losses from Homeotherms

The use of Newton's law in comparative thermobiology and as a predictive ecological model of heat losses from homeotherms does not account for the functional relationship of animal size and ambient wind speed to the overall thermal conductance of homeothermic animals. This paper reports a theoretical examination of some similarities and differences between Newton's law and the thermodynamic energy balance as they have been used to describe heat losses from homeothermic animals in artificial and natural environments.