Is body hair a functionless vestige?

Because of the square-cube law, bigger people have a higher mass-to-surface-area ratio, which should translate to higher heat-producing capacity and lower heat-loss capacity, shouldn't it?(I don't see it having much to do with hair though.)

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If you have nothing to say, you could have done so much more concisely. -- Dr Adequate

A long, thin shape would have proportionately more surface area than a short, thick one of the same mass.Consider a sheet of plywood 48 by 96 inches and 1/2 inch thick. That's 9360 square inches of surface area, according to my calculations. Now cut it into 12 inch squares - 32 squares to make a stack 16 inches high. That's 1056 square inches surface area. The short fat stack will stay much warmer than the thin sheet.

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If you have nothing to say, you could have done so much more concisely. -- Dr Adequate

I agree that the hair-holes argument doesn't make any sense. It's pretty funny though.

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If you have nothing to say, you could have done so much more concisely. -- Dr Adequate

I didn't say "generally larger"; I said specifically longer and thinner. In the very post that you replied to, I demonstrated that longer, thinner shapes have more surface area to dissipate more heat than shorter, fatter shapes of the same mass. But the topic is about the heat-dissipation qualities of hair, not body shape or size.

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If you have nothing to say, you could have done so much more concisely. -- Dr Adequate