| THEORY & FORMULAE |
Anthropometry (literally meaning "measurement of humans"), refers to the measurement of living human individuals for the purposes of understanding human physical variation (body size and shape).
The female body has three key physical points of inflection:
Chest, which is measured across the fullest part of the bust
Waist, which is usually measured at the smallest circumference of the abdomen
Hips, which is usually measured at the largest circumference
Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)
is the ratio of the circumference of the waist to that of the hips. It measures the proportion by which fat is distributed around the torso (lower body). Scientists have discovered that the waist-hip ratio (WHR) is a significant factor in judging female attractiveness. Women with a 0.7 WHR are usually rated as most attractive by men. For both men and women, a waist-hip ratio of 1.0 or higher is considered "at risk" or in the danger zone for undesirable health consequences.
Before puberty and after menopause, females have essentially the same waistlines as males. But during puberty waves of sex hormones start circulating in the body, high levels of the male hormone testosterone causes boys to amass in their upper body the bone and muscle of Stone Age hunters, while a high concentration of oestrogen in the female body results in the typical girl gaining nearly 35 pounds of so called reproductive fat deposited on the hips and thighs, rather than on the waist. Those pounds contain roughly the 80,000 calories needed to sustain a pregnancy, and the curves they create provide a gauge of reproductive potential. Devendra Singh, a University of Texas psychologist notes "You have to get very close to see the details of a woman's face, but you can see the shape of her body from 500 feet, and it says more about mate value.".
Waist-to-chest ratio (WHR)
is the ratio of the circumference of the waist to that of the chest including the breasts. It measures the proportion by which fat is distributed around the upper body. Most men seem to think that big-chested (i.e. big-breasted) women are sexier, more attractive and more feminine.
There's no doubt that a slim waistline between shapely hips and prominent breasts makes a woman highly appealing, this is regardless of the woman's overall body size and weight - a low waist-hip ratio is one of the few features that a tall, lean modern Barbie doll shares with a short, plump, primitive fertility icon!
Body Curviness Index (BCI)
There's no doubt that a slim waistline between shapely hips and prominent breasts makes a woman highly appealing, this is regardless of the woman's overall body size and weight - a low waist-hip ratio is one of the few features that a tall, lean modern Barbie doll shares with a short, plump, primitive fertility icon!
The female body usually inflects inward towards the waist around the middle of the abdomen. The waist is smaller than the chest and hips, unless there is a high proportion of body fat distributed around the waist. How much the chest or hips inflect inward, towards the waist determines the structural shape.
A woman's "dimensions" are often presented during beauty contests by the circumference around these three inflection points. For example "36-29-38" in Imperial units, meaning a 36" chest, 29" waist and 38" hips.
Colloquially, people refer to female body which has significant and pleasing constrasts between the chest, waist and hips as "curvy". Other terms used to describe such body contours include: bosomy, busty, buxom, curvaceous, full-bosomed, well-endowed, stacked, voluptuous, shapely.
Until now, there is no known methodology or biometric parameter for quantifying and thus comparing the relative curviness of two or more female bodies. Hand gestures are often used to describe the hourglass shape of a woman. The literature of curved surfaces in other disciplines have employed included-angles, radius of curvature, hyperbolic equations, etc. Significant body curves usually occur at the breasts, waistline and hips. Each curve adds to the curviness of the body, the total curviness would involve some sort of aggregation of the curviness contributions of each curve.
Here we propose to the world for the first time (Jan-2008) a simple index (BCI) for the describing the overall female body contour (details to appear in the literature):
BCI = ([C*H]/[W*W]) - 1;
= [1 - WHR*WCR]/[WHR*WCR];
where
C = chest circumference
W = waist circumference
H = hips circumference
WHR = W/H = waist-to-hips ratio
WCR = W/C = waist-to-chest ratio
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