Do you think some of it has to do with typically seeing your students when they're seated and having to extrapolate from that?
It somehow doesn't seem to hold for women, though. I can think of women with proportionately long torsos or with long legs, who seem short or tall.
Yeah, my instinct would be the opposite. On the other hand, pretty much everyone is tall to me.
So, related question. If someone is said to be both long and tall, as in the song about the long, tall Texan, what does that mean to you? Does it mean tall and thin?
Possibly because when you look at women, you are looking at their face instead of their butts.
Giraffes have the same number of vertebrae in their neck as humans, and they seem quite tall to me.
11: Yes. I read it in a gum wrapper when I was 10 and it stuck with me all this time. Could be the gun wrapper was wrong, but I doubt it.
Giraffe neck bones are really long.
Anyway, the San Diego Zoo agrees with the gum.
I have fairly long legs/short torso and fondly imagine it makes me seem taller than I am (contra Heebie's always-seated students).
I suspect that it goes both ways: long legs make you seem (relatively)taller when you're standing up or walking around, because you're covering ground/moving roughly the way a taller person would, and a long torso/shorter legs makes you look (relatively)taller when seated because, well, your torso is longer so your head is higher up.
I am a short-legged, long torso person, and I think that makes me look short.
17 sounds right to me. Buck and my dad are the same height, but at extreme opposite ends of the limb-length spectrum, and I think Dad looks bigger seated, and Buck standing.
I have a long torso proportionally, but my legs are so extremely short that no one would ever think me tall.
Does my inseam being half my height mean I have long legs?
I am a short-legged, long torso person, and I think that makes me look short.
Not when you're sitting down.
I am several inches shorter than my brother, but we are about the same height viewed sitting down. I doubt anyone would think we are the same height viewed standing up, though.
I have lost a critical half-inch that makes me not able to claim an extra inch in height by rounding. Makes me closer to being obese via the stupid BMI thing, too.
Heebie is 100% correct except it works for women too.
There's one skirt length (mid-calf) that cuts my legs in such a way that people (n=2) say 'wow, you're really short'. Nope! Just my super long legs look like stumps! My head is the same distance from the ground. Also it's the skirt.
There's one skirt length (mid-calf) that cuts my legs in such a way that people (n=2) say 'wow, you're really short'. Nope! Just my super long legs look like stumps!
This is the opposite of Heebie's position, isn't it?
pretty much all of the Japanese growth since WW2 is in the legs so the different generations look the same when they are sitting. the modern diet high in dairy and grains adds about 2 inches to the leg area, No paleo diet for your kids.
I have a very long torso and relatively short legs and I think it makes me look like a tall short person.
26: It's only with that skirt length that I get those direct comments but people underestimate my height all the time.
People look shorter with an axe sticking out of their back.
I've always been considered taller than people my height. (In high school, people demanded that a friend of mine and I stand back-to-back to demonstrate that we were the same height. People didn't believe it.)
I thought it was because I was skinny, but I do have the longish torso. And now, sadly, the wider torso.
For the first few months I knew a particular colleague, I would have described him as shortish. Turns out he had freakishly long legs that I didn't notice when he was sitting.
I have a dear friend who thinks she's long-legged because she has to push the car seat way down and back to back to drive comfortably.
But really, her legs look completely proportional to her mid-short torso. It's just that she has a biggish butt that makes her sit up higher and more forward in the seat. So she definitly looks taller seated, but it's not her torso doing it.
Maybe you'd like to read my research on that topic.
My experience matches the OP. Twice recently, I've been referred to as tall. I don't think of myself as tall. On a big-hair day, I'm 6'0". But I have a long torso and short legs.* Possibly relevant: on both occasions, I was wearing a suit.
*Humblebrag perils-of-short-legs anecdote: in my Little League days, I would often clobber the ball to the fence but only manage a single, because short legs = slow runner (for me, anyway). My coach took to calling me "Wheels."
There are people whose leg-torso ratio is such that they're the same height sitting as standing. I've seen it on TV.
short legs = slow runner (for me, anyway).
Conventional wisdom says short legs = slower runner, faster accelerator from standing start; long legs = faster runner, slower accelerator. Don't know if this is true.
There are people whose leg-torso ratio is such that they're the same height sitting as standing. I've seen it on TV.
Well, this could be true of anyone depending on the height of the chair they're sitting on.
re: 31
The opposite for me. I have a friend who, when (high school age) I said I was 5ft 10 didn't believe me. He* was about 6ft, and was convinced he was much much taller than me. When we stood head to head and someone else measured they confirmed I was only a bit shorter. He still didn't believe it. I must give off short vibes.
* since had gender reassignment, not he anymore