I am suddenly so ecstatic that I now understand the excitement of Archimedes when he shot out of his bathroom naked and ran through the streets of Syracuse while shouting “Eureka, Eureka”, just because he had discovered the ‘Law of Floatation, or Buoyancy’.
The excitement stems from the discovery that, though some adults are short while others are tall, we are all approximately the same height from the seated buttocks to the top of the head, otherwise called the ‘sitting height’.
That’s why in a public space such as in a hall, church, matatu or stadium almost all seem to be of the same height when seated.
But one will quickly notice that while the chairs are of the same height, some seat with their feet touching the ground while others have their feet hanging at different levels above the ground.
The illusion of similar height becomes manifest when all stand, and the different overall heights become evident.
And therefore, if human height or stature is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head while standing erect, and the sitting height is almost equal for all, save for a few outliers;
it then follows that it is the height of the legs from the feet to the waist, also known as leg-length, that determines the overall height of a human being.
