The scaling relationship describes how the measured value of a property depends on the resolution r used to make the measurement. It can have two different forms.
1 Power Law
The simplest and most common form of the scaling relationship is that , where B and b are constants.
On a plot of the logarithm of the measured property, , versus the logarithm of the resolution used to make the measurement, Log[r], this scaling relationship is a straight line.
Such power law scaling relationships are characteristic of fractals.
Power law relationships are found so often because so many things in nature are fractal.
2 Full Form
The full form of the scaling relationship is that where B, b, and a are constants and f(x) is a periodic function such that f(l+x)=f(x).
On a plot of the logarithm of the measured property, , versus the logarithm of the resolution used to make the measurement, Log [r], this scaling relationship is a straight line with a periodic wiggle.