Measuring Height Yourself: 2 Ways to Calculate BMI

[GeorginaS]

Strangely, no. With just a very small sampling of people (4) I once discovered that none of their wingspans exactly matched their height. Two of the four, in fact, had a wingspan greater than their height! One by an inch and the other by three inches (a real monkey man)! All done in stocking feet.

Well see? There was the problem right there. You had a guy who was wearing stockings.

 

[qspeechc]

Yes I should have been clearer. I want to see how many ways we can come up with for measuring your own height. I have found three more.

Drop an object from the height of the top of your head and time how long it takes to reach the ground. Simple physics will give you your height.

Construct a pendulum, say from some string and a fishing weight, of length equal to your height. Then you can find the period of this pendulum for small oscillations, over several oscillations then taking the average, and thus you can find the length of the pendulum.

Stand a certain distance from a mirror, say 3 metres. Place a laser at the top of your head and reflect the beam of the mirror so that the beam touches the tip of your feet. Then measure the angle the laser makes with the vertical or horizontal and simple trig gives you your height.

Have her bend over backwards and grab her ankles touching the soles of her feet to the top of her head, forming as circular a shape as possible. Then have her measure the distance from heel to small-of-back. Multiply by pi.

 

[Kronos5253]

Strangely, no. With just a very small sampling of people (4) I once discovered that none of their wingspans exactly matched their height. Two of the four, in fact, had a wingspan greater than their height! One by an inch and the other by three inches (a real monkey man)! All done in stocking feet.

Haha yeah I know, but it doesn't have to be 100% accurate, it just has to be a relatively good way to measure your height by yourself.

 

[BobG]

If I was in a more charitable mood, I might have told her something more like, "You'll never have boobs if you stay so skinny. Go away!"

Surprisingly true. Unwanted fat can be used as 'natural' breast implants: Two-in-one op joy for women

 

[tiny-tim]

Stand in front of at least a half-length mirror, mark the position of your head and your heels with lipstick, measure the distance between them, and double it.

 

[cronxeh]

When Shawn Johnson gained weight, I was glad that we had an 18 year old athlete who will actually have boobs and a great body once she loses that baby phat

Can't wait for the Sports Illustrated, FHM, and Playboy coverage on Shawny

 

[MotoH]

When Shawn Johnson gained weight, I was glad that we had an 18 year old athlete who will actually have boobs and a great body once she loses that baby phat

Can't wait for the Sports Illustrated, FHM, and Playboy coverage on Shawny

 

[CRGreathouse]

It is not. It is close, but different.

Ooh, I wonder if there's any data about this online. Do you think there's a correlation between height and (height - armspan)? Positive or negative? And what are good figutes for the mean and standard deviation for (height - armspan)?

 

[Borek]

Ooh, I wonder if there's any data about this online. Do you think there's a correlation between height and (height - armspan)? Positive or negative? And what are good figutes for the mean and standard deviation for (height - armspan)?

Interesting question, but no idea.

Sounds like good activity for a class - I remember reading abour measuring beans as an element of introducing Gaussian distribution. Finding correlation could be a nice complement.

 

[magpies]

She could walk her shoes up her self one after the other.

 

[Borek]

If she knows how to snap with her toes, she can measure time between the snap felt and snap heard, difference times 330 m/s gives the distance.

To be precise she should also hit something with a top of her head and measure time between hit and sound as well, then just sum both distances.

 

[Kronos5253]

If she knows how to snap with her toes, she can measure time between the snap felt and snap heard, difference times 330 m/s gives the distance.

To be precise she should also hit something with a top of her head and measure time between hit and sound as well, then just sum both distances.

Good luck with that one haha