Foot length and peoples height

[Wolfie]

I was watching Coast on the BBC recently and on one programme they were looking at ancient human footprints on mud flats. The expert said that a persons height is roughly 7 times the length of their foot.

Now I'm 5'11 3/4"and my foot is 10 1/4" (7 x 10 1/4 = 71 3/4" = 5' 11 3/4") Wow!

Try it and see for yourselves.

It would be great if people could then post their results so we can see just how accurate it really is.

(Remember it is the length of your foot not the length of your shoe!)

 

[Toddy]

I'd heard of this too. There's also the, "3 x around your head = height", one.
My foot is 22.5cm, x 7 = 1.57m; or in imperial, just shy of nine inches long so I should be around 63" tall, and I am Doesn't work for everybody though.
Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Wenie]

Unless I've gone wrong somewhere (which is quite likely) it doesn't seem to be accurate for me.

I'm 5ft6 and my foot is 9", so 7 x 9" = 63" = 5ft3... I think.

 

[andyn]

Isn't too bad for me either
Im 198cm and foot 28.5cm (Size 13 shoe) so 7x28.5= 199.5cm

 

[Motorbike Man]

Not too sure about this, but of course there will always be exceptions. I'm 6'2" and a size 12 (haven't done the measurements as I'm at work ) but a mate of mine is 6' and is only a size 6!! I've never been quite sure how he stays upright in a strong wind

 

[andyn]

LOL motorbike man,

Yeah i have a friend just two inches shorter than me and he is a size 6 too....Can you mate run ok? Coz when mine does he always ends up falling over.

 

[AJB]

Feet 10.5", Height 6'3", an inch and a half out, not bad.

Anybody know if this rule is applicable regardless of diet? If your feet grow to length Y and you grow to Yx7 on a modern diet did it still hold true for an ancient diet or could their height have bee Yx(7- a dietry factor)

You know that bored me too!!

 

[stevec]

i seem to remember sherlock homes using stride length to predict someones hight.
sc

 

[match]

Foot size is not very accurate, but stride length is, since stride length is determined by leg length, and this in turn is usually much closer to a set percentage of total height.

Of course, for stride length, you have to also look at travelling speed, since if you're running you spend some time with no feet on the ground in a jump, which affects stride. Depth of footprint related to size of print gives some indication of impact speed, but again this can be thrown off by unusual mass. Points of pressure in the print can also be useful indicators (much less heel print in a runner).

 

[leon-1]

Foot size is not very accurate, but stride length is, since stride length is determined by leg length, and this in turn is usually much closer to a set percentage of total height.

Of course, for stride length, you have to also look at travelling speed, since if you're running you spend some time with no feet on the ground in a jump, which affects stride. Depth of footprint related to size of print gives some indication of impact speed, but again this can be thrown off by unusual mass. Points of pressure in the print can also be useful indicators (much less heel print in a runner).

This isn't always a very good measure either, I have seen the "wee folk" in the army going at the same pace and keeping the same stride length as much bigger blokes. In fact you tend to find that a lot of the PTI's who tell you to open your stride out are generally a lot shorter than the guy that they are telling it to and they have no problems keeping up.

 

[Ahjno]

Hmmm doesn't work for me ... and I didn't do the math myself I used the Google calculator
My feet are 27.0cm *7= 189.0cm which isn't my height, as I'm 193cm.
When using my height, to calculate the size of my feet: 193cm / 7 = 27.6cm

Conclusion:
1) My feet are too small
2) I'm too tall

 

[Wolfie]

I didn't think it was going to be spot on but so far the results aren't that bad. Of 7 results (including my own) 2 are spot on, 4 are within 1 and1/2" or 4cm either way and only 1 result is out by more than 1 and1/2" or 4cm. I would class that as fairly accurate - 85% within a 3" or 8 cm bracket.

This is admittedly a small sample size so the more results that come in the better.

Just had two thoughts. People often have different sized feet. Does it matter if you measure your right foot, left foot or is it more accurate if you take an average of the two?

Also does it apply to children? Now, where are my kids.........

 

[innocent bystander]

This isn't always a very good measure either, I have seen the "wee folk" in the army going at the same pace and keeping the same stride length as much bigger blokes. In fact you tend to find that a lot of the PTI's who tell you to open your stride out are generally a lot shorter than the guy that they are telling it to and they have no problems keeping up.

In that case, could there be a correlation between stride length and speed of travel - so a lanky person and a shorthouse have a similar stride length at a given velocity?

 

[Ahjno]

(...) Just had two thoughts. People often have different sized feet. Does it matter if you measure your right foot, left foot or is it more accurate if you take an average of the two? (...)

I took measures from my right foot, just took them from my left (they make a perfect couple ) and the right was only 3-4mm larger then my left.
Difference in size may be caused by my right-footedness

 

[beachlover]

Wow!
10" and 5'10"
I am impressed, but wasn't there another urban legend about the size of a blokes feet relating to the size of another anatomical part?
I know. You were all waiting for someone to make an bottom of themselves and ask. I am that bottom

 

[demographic]

Foot length of 280 mm would give me a height of 1960 mm

Errr, yeah, I wish

My real height is 5' 10" which is 1778 mm.

Aparently your armspan from fingertip to fingertip is supposed to be the same as your height also.
Fingertip to fingertip is 6'1/2" (1841 mm)

 

[Goose]

This isn't always a very good measure either, I have seen the "wee folk" in the army going at the same pace and keeping the same stride length as much bigger blokes. In fact you tend to find that a lot of the PTI's who tell you to open your stride out are generally a lot shorter than the guy that they are telling it to and they have no problems keeping up.

I agree, I am fairly lanky, and used to be able to run no problem, but the CFT used to kill me trying to keep my pace the same as shorter mates.

 

[Swampy Matt]

For 18months I worked as a bootfitter in a specialist outdoor shop. During that time I must have measured over 100 pairs of feet per month.

As I'm interested in tracking, It occured to me that this would be a good way to check this foot length/height theory.

Neither myself or the resident pedorthist could find any definate link between the two - certainly not enought to accurately predict one from the other in either imperial or metric measurements or with any kind of equation.

However, every bootfitter at the store could look at a person and guess the foot size to within 1 standard UK shoe size (approx 8mm) - this would work for most people (around 80-90%). But this takes into account things like posture, gait, etc, rather than just height.

This suggests to me that an experienced tracker could use similar intuition to make the same kind of 'educated guess'.

There did appear to be more of a relationship between foot width and the, ehem, plumpness of the person.

None of this is based on any empirical evidence, just our observations over an 18month period.

Matt.