Quote Originally Posted by daniel1983
(The greater the surface area the more heat will be lost). heat storage is based on the mass of an object(larger mass= more heat storage). An adult ball python would store alot of heat due to its size but lose more heat due to its larger surface area. the hatchling would store less heat due to its size but lose less heat due to the smaller surface area. Based on those FACTS and the identical structure of large and small ball pythons, I would make the EDUCATED guess that the rate of heat loss in both large and small pythons would be equal if they were in identical environments and had the same initial temperature.
Hi Daniel, I must disagree with some of your statements. While what you say is strictly true for a two dimentional universe, it is not so the case in ours. When it comes to an objects size and heat loss, we have to look at Surface area and Volume together without seperating them both. We have to look at them as a ratio called the "Surface Area: Volume" in the scientific community(I'm sure you already knew that ).

Lets look at some examples. Say we have two cubes, one twice the dimensions of the other.

Cube A: length/width/height = 1

Cube B: length/width/height = 2

Investigate A:

Volume of A = 1*1*1 = 1cubic units.

Surface Area of A = 6*1*1 = 6 square units.

Surface Area:Volume = 6:1

Investigate B:

Volume of B = 2*2*2 = 8cubic units

Surface area of B = 6*2*2 = 24square units.

Surface Area:Volume = 24:8 = 3:1

Conclusion:

As you can see, the Surface Area:Volume ratio for the smaller cube is higher than the larger cube. I agree with you when you said that large mass = more heat storage. The larger cube will take a longer time to heat up to a particular temperature, lets call it "T". It will also take a longer time to loose heat than the smaller cube.

Under the same controlled conditions as the larger cube, the smaller cube will take a lot less time to heat up to the same temp "T", and will loose that heat at a higher rate:

Proof of the above stated:

Cube A ratio = 6:1
Cube B ratio = 3:1
Initial Temp of A and B(both same) = T

Rate of loss of heat for A = 6T per minute
Rate of loss of heat for B = 3T per minute.

Hence the Larger Cube looses heat at a slower rate than the samller cube. This means that a smaller BP with a larger surface area:volume ratio will loose and gain heat faster than a larger BP