Question: Do you think its physically easier to live as a smaller person or a taller person?

Eleanor Holmes answered on 11 Nov 2013:

This question has divided my office!

I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

If you are small, you can squeeze into tighter spaces. There is always room on the couch for you and you can dominate at hide and seek. You always have plenty of leg room and, from a physics point of view, if you fall directly over like a stick you will hit the ground less hard than a taller person because of your torque.

If you are tall you can reach things on high shelves and see over everyone’s heads in crowds. Also the air tends to be cleaner the higher up you are because most of the contaminants in air are heavier than the oxygen and nitrogen. But it does take more work for you to climb up stairs because of your height.

I guess I would say (as a person who stands a staggering 5 foot 6 inches tall) that life is physically easier for a short person because things like ladders exist to take away tall people’s natural advantages, where as you cannot make yourself shorter when it’s convenient.