Saturday, April 28, 2007

Quetelet invented the Body Mass Index

Oh no, he didnt

He merely observed that, among his samples of early C19th Belgians, weight tends to increase in proportion to the square of the height, once they were fully grown

He also failed to recognise that newer generations might be growing taller. He attributed to natural shrinkage the entire difference in height between 40 & 80 year olds



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