Relative growth rate

Okay kiddo, have you ever seen a plant grow? You know how sometimes it may start off really small, but then it gets bigger and bigger over time? Well, that's kind of like what we mean when we talk about relative growth rate.

Basically, relative growth rate is a way to measure how quickly something is growing in comparison to its starting size. So let's say we have two plants, and one is 5 inches tall while the other is only 2 inches tall. If they both grew 1 inch in a week, which one do you think is growing faster? That's right, the smaller one is growing faster relative to its starting size!

But we don't just look at how much something has grown overall. We also look at how long it takes for something to grow. So if we have two plants that both grew 2 inches in a week, but one plant started off at 5 inches while the other started at 10 inches, which one do you think has a higher relative growth rate? It's the one that started off smaller, because it grew more in proportion to its starting size in the same amount of time.

In science, we use relative growth rate to understand how different organisms grow and develop over time. By looking at how much they grow in relation to their starting size and the amount of time it takes, we can learn a lot about how they function and adapt to their environment. Cool, huh?