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The General Relationship between Physical Characteristics and Walking Speed

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The General Relationship between Physical Characteristics and Walking Speed
The General Relationship between Physical Characteristics and Walking Speed

The data gathered from 4 to 5 individuals pertaining to their walking speed was documented in 5 different instances and an average taken to gain a clearer picture of a relationship between the average walking speed of an individual and the impact of physical characteristics between individuals, on walking speed.

1. INTRODUCTION

In observing individuals in daily routines, it appears that height, and weight affects the walking speeds of individuals in different manners. Individuals taller in stature have the propensity to maintain a longer stride, thus yielding a faster speed as opposed to those who are median or shorter in height. Individuals who are heavier in weight appear to yield adverse effects on their walking speed. A random distance of 6 meters was chosen for the calculation of walking speed for 4 different individuals to be compared to height and weight of each person, separately and in correlation to support that such a relationship exists and is viable. According to reference.com, the average human walking speed is 3 mph, which equates to approximately 1.34 meters / second. The average height of U.S. males according to disabled-world.com, in an article “Height Chart of Men and Women in Different Countries”, is 5’10.2” or 178.2 cm. The average weight for men in relationship to height is: 139 – 169 lbs. at 5’8”, 149 – 183 lbs. at 5’10”, and 155 – 189 lbs. at 5’11”. Participants were in the range of 5’8” to 5’11”,

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The following materials / devices were used to obtain data: (a) (1) measuring stick, 1 meter in length (b) a stop-watch or similar device with a stop-watch function (c) computer with Microsoft Word to create a documentation file (d) if weight is unknown, a scale to obtain weight (e) if height is unknown, a measuring tape to obtain height. *Note* In this case, both height and weight were known and provided by the



References: “Average Walking Speed”. reference.com. Web. 20, Nov. 2014 “Height Chart of Men and Women in Different Countries”. disabled-world.com. Web. 20, Nov. 2014 Schimpl, Moore, Lederer, Et. Al., “Association between Walking Speed and Age in Healthy, Free-living Individuals Using Mobile Accelerometry – A Cross-Sectional Study”. plosone.org. Web. 21, Nov. 2014. “What is the Average Human Reaction Time”. answers.yahoo.com. Web. 20, Nov. 2014 “What is the Average Human Reaction Time”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction-time. Web. 20, Nov. 2014 .

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