>>> Mass rises as the cube of size, but muscle power rises as the square of 
>>> size.
>>
>> I would have thought the strength of a muscle depends on its volume, why 
>> do you say is rises with the square of size?
>
> Muscle power is [apparently] proportional to cross-section area, not 
> volume.

I guess that makes sense if you assume each cell in the muscle fibre can 
only exert a certain force, a chain of them can still only exert that same 
force no matter how long it is.  It's having more fibres in parallel that 
help to increase the force.

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