Human heights over time

[comrade_general]

[Scarlet]

That is impressively tall.. Are the rest of your family similarly so?

I'm 5' 6.5" I think.

[Lady Grey]

You are all small

Nope, you are a giant.

[Son of the King]

That is impressively tall.. Are the rest of your family similarly so?

Not really... my parents are both average-ish height and Othko and Tee are also pretty normal height I think.

Having said that, I was one of the smallest in my class until halfway through high school.

[Clockwork]

I'm 6' 0" my dad is the shortest of his siblings (including my aunt) at 5' 10" and I have an uncle that is 6' 4". Both my brothers should be taller then me when they stop growing and my sister is 5' 11".

[Lady Grey]

^ tall family :O both me and my Mum are quite short, about the same height, my brother and Dad seem average though.

[comrade_general]

But yes, as we learned from the Family Guy clip people are taller than they used to be. Anyone have their own theories as to why? Is it simply like Jubal said in that women prefer taller mates (see SotK and MoD) or is it something more cosmic? i.e. the universe is expanding so we've stretched a little bit.

[Phoenixguard09]

My immediate family's short on both sides. I have a tall cousin (6' 2") and three tall uncles (somewhere in the 6' vicinity) but in this household I'm the tallest, although I only overtook my father in the last month or so.

That being said, I was one of the shortest people in my class at school for many years. I was average height until about Year 3. I considered 5'6" in Year 11 to be a major accomplishment.

My brother's only sevenish at the moment, but he will be taller than me in time, I am sure.

Ah well.

[Scarlet]

^ I like this "we've stretched a bit" theory Clearly the answer to our problems!

[Lady Grey]

The expanding universe clearly left me behind...

[Jubal]

As I said above, the most plausible theory seems to be that it's mainly dictated by nutrition.

So trends in the past have included a drop from the Middle Ages to the late C18th, then a rise to the present; there was also apparently a big drop at the advent of grain-based agriculture as people started eating a lot less meat.

[Scarlet]

That would also make sense with the whole you-need-protein-to-live-and-grow thang

[Clockwork]

I don't wholly buy it, you see those videos of impoverished people around the world and they don't look short when compared with the reporter/presenter. And these would be peoples that have been malnourished for generations. But I do understand the whole protein thing and realise it probably is the most likely cause.

[Jubal]

I don't wholly buy it, you see those videos of impoverished people around the world and they don't look short when compared with the reporter/presenter. And these would be peoples that have been malnourished for generations. But I do understand the whole protein thing and realise it probably is the most likely cause.

Actually the data on averages does back it up strongly: South Korean people average a fair bit taller than North Koreans for example. There are of course other genetic factors, but between groups with similar genes certainly height can vary a lot with nutrition and nurture (and height genes probably haven't been changing as radically within the last few thousand years as diet).

[comrade_general]

So really speaking about only 'height' is a little confusing because the reality is that we are getting larger overall. Right?