Scales: From Deinonychus to Dysprosium

Scales are discussed, with classical examples from paleontology and ship construction, and others from atomic and nuclear physics. The question, "What is a nucleus?" is answered by appealing to scales. Chiral symmetry is introduced by examining the Rutherford experiment, and the influence of that symmetry on nuclear physics is discussed. Power counting (dimensional analysis) and "naturalness" are introduced and are used to assess the importance of many-body forces, and to answer the question, "Is nuclear physics tractable?". An appeal is made to Gilbert's Law of Magnetism to judge the complexity of few-nucleon calculations. Recent benchmarks in our understanding of few-nucleon systems are reviewed.