Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Yet another Jungle q

a palm is the width of four fingers
a foot is the width of four palms (i.e., 12 inches)
a cubit is the width of six palms
a man's height is four cubits (and thus 24 palms)
a pace is four cubits
the length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height
the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of a man's height
the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is one-eighth of a man's height
the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a man's height
the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is one-fifth of a man's height
the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of a man's height
the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man's height
the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose is one-third of the length of the head
the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is one-third of the length of the face
the length of the ear is one-third of the length of the face
The navel is naturally placed in the centre of the human body, and, if in a man lying with his face upward, and his hands and feet extended, from his navel as the centre, a circle be described, it will touch his fingers and toes. It is not alone by a circle, that the human body is thus circumscribed, as may be seen by placing it within a square. For measuring from the feet to the crown of the head, and then across the arms fully extended, we find the latter measure equal to the former; so that lines at right angles to each other, enclosing the figure, will form a square.

Whose theory is this.. Name the book if possible..

10 comments:

Skythe said...

Da Vinci?
This is the description of the Vitruvian Man?

Hariharan said...

what is described are the parameters for a perfect man (and i mean the male).. forgive me but i don;t remember the book.. some old Indian theory..

The Mudd said...

heh..both of u are wrong... skythes ans was my first guess

jungle said...

Why Kutty the bracket? Is it because of your history of being "The xComplete Man" according to a few ppl in coll? Innocent question..

vazha said...

Some book by Simon singh.. related to proportions etc

chicken_dinner said...

golden ratio???
phi?

Shazz said...

Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. You can see that from the last point. "circumscribed in circle and square". The book is some Proportions of men, right?

jungle said...

Sorry folks. Still haven't got the right answer from anyone. The guessing game may continue.

Shazz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jungle said...

ok answer.. It IS the basis of Da Vinci's Vitruvian man.. But.. The theory is not Vinci's.. It is Vitruvius' (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio).. and the book's De Architectura