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I'm working on a project that concerns movement and the human body. Before I begin to experiment, I need an answer to a question I'm sure has an answer, but doesn't Google well.

What I need to know is firstly whether I can assume that if people have the same height, they will also have the same leg length?

Secondly, if two different people have an identical height, will they take the same amount of time to cover the same distance when running at the same speed, regardless of their unique technique for running?

An Example:

Say I'm with a friend, we're both 6 feet tall exactly, we both get on to treadmills side-by-side and set it to a speed of 7.5km/hour.

Will we be moving exactly the same body parts at the same time - will our feet land on the treadmill at the same time?

Is there a possibility that people of the same height do not have the same leg length? If so, how likely is it on average?

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People of the same height can easily have different leg lengths. Think western women models - currently they are typically women with relatively long legs while ordinary people can easily have shorter legs for the same total height. There's even leg-to-body ration section in Body proportions Wikipedia article.

This is why pedometers always require calibration - the procedure in which you have to walk a known distance and count steps and then know how much steps you need per mile. There're no tables that would assist by assuming certain steps-per-mile ration for known height.

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  • $\begingroup$ Of course, yes you're correct. Thanks for the link. Do you know of any other variable I could use to determine leg lengths? So far I've got trouser length (not a strong option) or establish a baseline via other methods. $\endgroup$
    – Dom
    Sep 30, 2013 at 13:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Dominic: When clothes are crafted the typical measure is "inner leg length" measure which more or less maps to how long a leg is. This typically has one inch increment though and so I guess isn't very reliable. $\endgroup$
    – sharptooth
    Sep 30, 2013 at 13:29

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