If the world’s population stood on the equator with outstretched arms and fingers touching, there would be enough people to circle Earth more than 300 times. The arm span of a person is close to ...

Arm span measurement is normally close to standing height, so Tan, from Newcastle University in the UK, and others used the arm span-to-height ratio as a measure for loss of height in a study ...

For centuries bodies themselves gave birth to units: thumb-joint inches, arm-span fathoms and foot-long feet. But units could sometimes be fluid.

She and colleagues studied 2,798 people for an average of five years and took knee height and arm span measurements. Most people in the study were white, with an average age of 72.