Volume can be doubled. Square footage (floor surface) can be doubled. It's the overall skin (surface area) that isn't doubled.

If we were to measure the length of the poles they would be doubled either. Let's consider the square tent again and assume a simple two pole set up.


The pole would have 12 inches on each side, plus the tranverse. Using the Pythagoream Theorm we get

H = (S^2 + S^2)^1/2
H = (12^2 + 12^2)^1/2
H = (144 + 144)^1/2
H = (288)^1/2
H = 17
so the total pole length for the small box is 12 + 12 + 17 = 41


For the long box, the sides are again 12, but the tranverse is longer.

H = (S^2 + S^2)^1/2
H = (12^2 + 24^2)^1/2
H = (144 + 576)^1/2
H = (720)^1/2
H = 27
So the total pole length for the large box is 12 + 12 + 27 = 51.


Doubling the size of the tent only added about 25% to the length of each pole.

We saw earlier that doubling the square footage (floor area) and volume of the tent increased the surface area (skin) from
12x12x6=864 to
(12x24x4)+(12x12x2)=1440,
an increase of about 66%.