Cam’s Theorem: Surface area is the most important measurable trait.
Proof:
Sub-Theorem 1: Everything has a surface area.
Case 1-1: Any mathematically perfect, theoretical volume has surface area (cubes, spheres, cones or icosahedrons, they all possess outer planes or otherwise measurable exteriors).
Case 1-2: Creatures, human or otherwise, have surface area (mostly skin, hair and the occasional eyeball).
Case 1-3: Countries have surface area (usually defined by rivers, oceans and significant longitudes/latitudes).
Case 1-4: Ideas have surface area (when a diatribe meanders beyond the covering of a protective umbrella, I guess the umbrella is the idea’s surface area).
Thus, everything has a surface area.
Sub-Theorem 2: The ubiquity of surface area is precisely why it represents the perfect place to begin the path toward understanding.
Case 2-1: The circular shape of a drop of water tells us something about covalent bonds.
Case 2-2: The picturesque monzogranite features at Joshua Tree National Park tell us something about both meteorology and geology.
Case 2-3: A microeconomist might say the surface area of your indifference curve states your real economic preferences.
Case 2-4: Google seems to make a lot of money by knowing the shape of your forays into their digital world (this also says a manifesto’s worth about our modern world).
As cases 2-1 through 2-4 illustrate, all that chaotic, specific stuff bubbling within can be first observed on the surface area. Surface area represents the alchemized summation of internal choices, values, and characteristics.
Thus, surface area represents a way to observe the limits of and to begin to understand what currently is.
Sub-Theorem 3: Everything acts on or in relation to surface area.
Interactions between separates first occur on their limits.
Case 3-1: The collision of two balls, whether elastic or inelastic, starts when one surface area interrupts another.
Case 3-2: For you to even see, the light describing the surface area of a thing must slam (and/or vibrate) into the surface area of your eyeballs before any part of your brain begins processing.
Case 3-3: Ideas have surface area. Conversation happens when the limits of one philosophical surface area bumps into another. The good stuff lives in that friction, as exploring each arguments’ reach might lead to changed surface areas for the participants as in a Franklinian compromise. Learning is an expansion of surface area.
Thus — as cases 3-1 to 3-3 illustrate — everything, including us, connects through surface areas.
Combining Sub-Theorems 1 through 3, surface area is the opportunity. Within lies the precocious cauldron shaping that individual surface area. Outside represents areas for growth, expansion or interaction. Surface areas depict the contours of what is and what happens upon. Surface area is required for stuff to happen, for where an incomplete, developing or decaying internal structure connects with an unpredictable collection of other incomplete, developing or decaying internal structures. Surface area is both the beauty of identity and the magic of possibility.
Thus, and in conclusion, surface area is the most important measurable trait in the toolkit of any physicist, engineer or other type of payer of attention.
Essays by Cameron 