Tall or nah Frequently Asked Questions
Here you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Tall or nah and height calculators in general.
What is a height calculator?
A height calculator is a tool that determines whether a person is tall or not tall and how many people they are taller than. Advanced height calculators, like Tall or nah, will also be able to determine the tallest a person will statistically ever be if their height is still increasing.
The determination if a person is tall and the calculation of how many people they are taller than are made against that person's peers. A person's peers are the people who share their age and biological sex in the same part of the world.
What does a height calculator define as tall?
A height calculator determines whether a person is tall using math. The calculator, however, must first be programmed with the definition of "tall", using reason. While a height calculator can be programmed to determine tallness arbitrarily, a true height calculator defines tall using statistical reasoning. And the most logical definition that emerges—the one that is the least arbitrary—defines tall as existing above the median in the group. That is, a person is tall if they are taller than over 50% of their peers.
Tall is intentionally not defined as being taller than exactly 50% because the tall group must always be the minority, which requires the threshold to be over 50% in the event of ties at the median. This definition ensures that tall is always a relative outlier and not a common trait.
How does a height calculator work?
At its core, a height calculator works by comparing the height of the subject to the heights of others in the subject's demographic. This can be done in a number of ways, but the LMS methodology yields the most accurate results because of its ability to work with data that is not normally distributed—such as the height distribution curve. LMS stands for lambda (λ), mu (μ), and sigma (σ)—parameters used in statistical modeling to describe the distribution of data, like height across age and sex.
And that is what Tall or nah uses. Therefore, in the most technical sense, Tall or nah is a statistical LMS height calculator.
When the subject inputs their data into the calculator, that data is ranked against everyone in the dataset with matching demographics. The value of that rank is what determines the subject's percentile, or percentage score—the percentage of people in that demographic the subject is taller than. Because of the astronomical number of input combinations that exist, however, not everyone's input data may be well represented in the dataset. But a height calculator that uses the LMS methodology can accurately—with remarkable precision—interpolate or extrapolate results no matter how much of an outlier the subject is in the dataset.
How accurate is the percentage score?
The percentage score that Tall or nah generates is remarkably accurate if the subject lives in the United States or in a country with similar height distribution. This score represents the subject's height percentile—the percentage of people the subject is taller than who are the same age and biological sex as the subject.
Tall or nah, in the most technical sense, is a statistical LMS calculator, which are remarkably adept at producing accurate percentiles with high-quality datasets. And the quality of the data that powers Tall or nah is exceptionally high—the product of a 19-year, multi-million-dollar survey that measured the heights of people across every major racial and ethnic group in the United States from the age of 2 to adulthood. The percentage score that Tall or nah generates, in practicality, could not be more accurate.
How accurate is the projected height?
The height prediction that Tall or nah makes (projected height) is made by sliding the subject's height percentile into adulthood and performing a reverse calculation. Population data shows that height percentiles tend to track consistently over time. Once a person settles into their growth curve, their percentile becomes fairly stable and carries into adulthood with only minor shifts.
The Tall or nah height prediction is made on U.S. population data, which means that if the subject generally lives in alignment with the average American lifestyle, their end height will likely be their projected height. Therefore, the accuracy of the prediction is largely dependent on the subject's lifestyle. This also means that the subject can outperform their projected height, which you can read about in Height Advantage: The Ultimate Guide to Unlocking Max Height.
The accuracy of this prediction is also largely dependent on the age of the subject. The older the subject is, the more accurate the prediction becomes. By the mid-to-late teenage years, when most of the variation in growth patterns has played itself out, the prediction can be remarkably accurate.
Where is the data sourced from?
The dataset that powers Tall or nah comes from 19 cumulative years of data collection that was funded and overseen by the National Center for Health Statistics in the United States. The study, which spanned four consecutive decades, measured the heights of tens of thousands of people across every major racial and ethnic group in America from infancy to adulthood.
The effort to obtain this data set into motion one of the most comprehensive healthcare studies ever performed anywhere in the world, resulting in one of the most authoritative datasets in American pediatric health. As a testament to its quality, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics use this same dataset.
Is my data stored anywhere?
None of your input data or output data are ever stored by Tall or nah outside of your browser session. That is, when you close your web browser or push the clear button after performing a calculation, that input data and output data are lost forever.
Are there international versions of Tall or nah?
Currently, there are no international versions of Tall or nah. Every calculation made on Tall or nah is relative to the heights of people in the United States.
However, you can still use Tall or nah outside the United States because statistics can be inferred, and the general shape of the height distribution curve is similar across most human populations. What ultimately counts as tall, however, will vary by country, but you can still get a sense of how your height compares to other people and learn what your max height is capable of reaching.