You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom it gets a slight shock and walks away… a rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes.

I am rereading “On Being the Right Size” by J. B. S. Haldane over lunch and am once again struck by the succinctness with which he describes those effects, as I am every time I read it. My mind boggles at how utterly perfect those few words in their insinuation of the associated visuals.

If you haven’t read it, I’d suggest that you do. As Prof. Kurose suggested in his computer networking class, where I first read this essay, these lessons apply to everything.

http://www.physlink.com/Education/essay_haldane.cfm