Alveoli
seventy square metres, folded into six litres.
fall through your lung — every split doubles the surface hidden in your chest
Each branch splits in two, and exposed surface roughly doubles with every split: a plain rule repeated, not one jump. Real lungs carry it to twenty-three generations, the trick the gut and kidneys use too.
Concepts: anatomy, scaling.
An interactive you play with one thumb, on Wundr.