Body Mass Index (bmi): How It Is Calculated, Used, And Its Limitations
by Dakota Stevens
2021-01-12 13:37:51
Body Mass Index (bmi): How It Is Calculated, Used, And Its Limitations
by Dakota Stevens
2021-01-12 13:37:51
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is a statistical measure of body weight based on a person's weight and heigh...
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Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is a statistical measure of body weight based on a person's weight and height. Though it does not actually measure the percentage of body fat, it is used to estimate a healthy body weight based on a person's height. Due to its ease of measurement and calculation, it is the most widely used diagnostic tool to identify weight problems within a population, usually whether individuals are underweight, overweight or obese. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing "social physics." Body mass index is defined as the individual's body weight divided by the square of his or her height. The formulae universally used in medicine produce a unit of measure of kg/m2. BMI can also be determined using a BMI chart, which displays BMI as a function of weight (horizontal axis) and height (vertical axis) using contour lines for different values of BMI or colors for different BMI categories. The book talks about the way BMI is calculated, the diverse classifications we fit in, and the limitations it encounters. Project Webster represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Project Webster continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge.
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