How to determine how much the head weighs without separating it from the body. Head size in tables

People often ask strange questions just out of curiosity. One of these is how much a person’s head weighs? This question becomes especially interesting because it cannot be just taken and weighed without separating it from the body. This is impossible, since the bulk of the neck holds, and the weight will be far from the present.

Head Weight Calculation Options

It is impossible to determine exactly how much the head weighs using the calculation method, but you can approximately calculate. There are several methods, most of which are in the initial measurement of the volume of a body part:

1. The method of Archimedes. The most common and discussed measurement method. To do this, you need a bucket of water, a capacity larger than a bucket and an assistant who will control the entire process. The bucket is placed in a large container and filled to the top, exactly from edge to edge. Now the comrade should help to carefully lower the head so that the neck does not appear in the vessel. The volume of displaced water will almost exactly match the volume of the head. The percentage of error depends on the accuracy of the experiment. Further actions are based on the assumption that the density of the rest of the body is approximately equal to the density of the head. To go this route, you need to measure the volume of your body (also displaced by water). For residual calculation, the ratio of the head volume divided by the volume of the whole body is taken. The resulting number is multiplied by the weight of the whole body. The result shows how much the head weighs.
2. Archimedes method 2. Only the volume of the head is measured in the above-described way, only the calculation method is different (and a bath for immersing the whole body is not needed). In this calculation, the assumption is made that the density of the head is slightly higher than the density of water, about 1070 kg / m³. To calculate the weight, you need to convert the resulting head volume to cubic meters and multiply by the estimated density of the head.
3. Using NMR, one can measure the density of protons in each cube measuring 1 mm x 1 mm x 1 mm head. Then do the same with carbon, calcium, and everything else. Then calculate the mass in each cube and add up to get the total mass of the head. The method is far from being as simple as the previous ones, but it has the right to life.
4. Measurement of head weight of the same volume. Since it is impossible to separate your head from the body and stay alive to check the result, it remains to look for a head of the same volume in medical laboratories. Just by weighing it, without tricks, you can find out the almost exact weight of your head.
   

Weighing and Counting Results

Although it is impossible to weigh one’s own limb separately from the body, scientists measured how much a dead person’s head weighs. It turned out that people are very different in size. Accordingly, the heads also differ in weight. A small one can weigh 3.5 kg, and a large one can weigh over 6.3.

Since the brain of any person weighs 1.5 kg in the aisles, it is likely that a large head means a larger, not more intelligent representative. Extra weight can be formed due to a large skull, the muscles needed to maintain it, and other fluids.

If we ignore all extremes, the weight of a medium-sized head is 4.5 - 5 kg, that is, about 8% of the total body weight. This is significantly less than expected in the movie "Jerry Maguire" (only 3.6 kg).

Head size

If the question of head weight is rather theoretical, then determining the size can come in handy when buying a headgear. The difficulty lies in the fact that the head is not perfectly round in shape, but of a different circumference in each section.

To measure the size you will need a centimeter tape. If it is not at hand, you can use any strip of fabric or paper (the main thing is that it does not stretch), and measure the distance obtained with a ruler.

For measurement, a person should sit straight, not bending his head. The tape is placed horizontally parallel to the floor. It should pass 2 cm above the eyebrows on the frontal part, above the ears (or at their tips) and along the protruding part of the nape. It is not necessary to tighten the measuring tape too much, but it is also not worth it with an overflow. To get an even more accurate size, you can measure the circumference a little higher and lower than the original place, then calculate the average result.

Head Size Charts

When buying a headgear, it is not the girth of the head that is more useful, but its size in the international system. The smallest girth is considered to be 54 cm, and the largest - 65.

As a person grows up, size changes significantly. For clarity, we give a table of head size by age for a boy under 16 years old:

The most active head growth occurs in the first 3 months of life and lasts up to a year. From the increase in volume will depend on how much the head weighs. Further increase is not so rapid.