Interesting earlier discussion of the same article here under a different URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6545132" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6545132</a><p>And here's another link that includes the same article as well as many others: <a href="http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/rightsize.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/rightsize.pdf</a>
This is a classic work, and well worth reading. It puts the lie to the common statements that "if an ant were as big as a man, it could lift incredible loads!" If an ant were as big as a man, it would collapse under its own weight.
HTML version: <a href="http://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-size.html" rel="nofollow">http://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-size.html</a>