subject: Human Height Calculators Are Flawed - Here's Why [print this page] The human height calculator formula is a good idea - in theory. But that is where it stops short. The human height calculator asks for you to input criteria relating to the parents and grandparents of the person whose potential height you are trying to estimate.
For example, if you were a parent that wanted to know how tall your young son or daughter would become, you would input the following criteria:
First you would enter your child's father's height, your child's mother's height, and finally all of the child's grandparents' heights. You would then add all of these heights together and divide by 6. Then, if the child is a female you would add an inch or maybe two inches to that height to come up with the total estimated height. If the child is male, you would add an inch or two more. The variations in the total amount of inches added to the child's potential height based on gender depends on what human height calculator you're using at the time.
While on the surface, this may seem like a perfectly legitimate way to estimate height, it is flawed by its simplicity.
Height is based largely on genetics, this is certainly true. But there is also an innumerable amount of other variables - including environmental, health, and nutritional variables - to even begin to think that these human height calculator estimations can be even close to correct.
If the child suffers from any major illness in his or her lifetime - particularly if that illness strikes during his or her peak growing years - then it can have a very large impact on his or her height. Nutrition plays a huge role in how tall a child will go as well. Is the child obese or underweight? Is the child active in sports and exercise? Is the child subject to mental or psychological issues?
We all want the best for our children and everyone wants their child to go through life not suffering from any one of the above tragedies or any kind of hardship at all. However, to realistically think that no outside, environmental variable will ever affect their height is downright foolhardy at best and can be detrimental to the child's overall height development at worst.
