Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2021 June 28

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June 28

Simone Biles

I have always enjoyed watching gymnastics and totally admire the talented athletes performances. Recently I have been watching Simone Bile. My question relates to her size and her ability. I believe she is something like 4' 11" or so. Quite small in stature. Is her ability to perform such skilled moved correlated to her size? If she was 5' 10", for example, would she still be able to perform the same movements or would an increased size result in greater difficulty (or impossibility) in performing her movements? 70.26.17.168 (talk) 07:37, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Searching the web for e.g. gymnast height suggests that shortness is indeed beneficial. A large part comes from a lower moment of inertia, making it easier to tumble head over heels - the same way it easier to twirl a short stick than a long stick. Also the relation of muscle mass to body mass can be better. Parts of square-cube law may be relevant.

Then again being too short is a disadvantage - running gets harder with exceedingly short legs. There is probably an optimal height range in there somewhere. 85.76.77.87 (talk) 14:23, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Team USA states her height as 4′8″.^[1] "Impossibility" is a strong term, but the tallest female Olympic athletes on Team USA specializing (like Simone Biles) in artistic gymnastics are 5′3″ (Aleah Finnegan and Brenna Dowell), so 5′10″ would be exceptionally tall for an artistic gymnast performing at Olympic height – actually also for male athletes.  --Lambiam 14:26, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

The tallest female gymnast to have competed at the Olympics is said to be Marie-Sophie Hindermann. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 14:46, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

In which two different figures are given for her height. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:41, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

All of it without proper sources. de:Marie-Sophie Hindermann has her at 1.75m, about 5'9". --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 20:05, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

The article has her at 5 feet 7 inches tall in 2008 (the year she competed in the Summer Olympics) while the German Wikipedia gives her height as 1.75 cm m in 2010. The poor woman must be experiencing an incredible growth spurt. For all we know, at that rate she may be 2 metres tall now.  --Lambiam 00:14, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

If she was 170 cm (5’7”) in 2008 and only 1.75 cm in 2010, that’s a factor of 9.86 shrinkage per year. At that rate, she’d be about 200 femtometers by now. —Amble (talk) 04:29, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

Oops. Corrected.  --Lambiam 06:09, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

Ahem! {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.125.73.1 (talk) 09:28, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

(EC) Although I wonder if the heights are correct, putting the typo aside, I don't know why people think a ~5cm height grow in 2 years is remarkable. It is definitely not at a younger age. It is a bit unusual to gain ~5cm from 17 to 19 as a female as most have reached their final height by then and most of the growth spurt is in the early part of puberty but I doubt it is unheard of. Never take averages as certainties. Probably especially for athletes who can have delayed puberty. [2] Frankly even assuming the figures are correct, 5cm may not be right anyway especially since we only have inches for the Olympics height. Nil Einne (talk) 09:36, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

I cannot find a source for the 5 ft 7 claim. The source for the 1.75 m claim makes it specifically in connection with an exception to the standard bar height granted by the International Gymnastics Federation for Hindermann during the 2010 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held that year in Birmingham.  --Lambiam 22:17, 29 June 2021 (UTC)