Measuring heights of people
March 24, 2016 12:33 PM   Subscribe

Suppose your height falls exactly on a half-inch. What do you do in casual conversation when people ask how tall you are? Do you round up, round down, or say blah-and-a-half? What is the most socially acceptable practice?

Does this vary by gender — are women more likely to round down and men to round up? What about when filling out medical/government forms that don't allow for fractional inches?

And what's the cutoff for dealing with fractions? Is "and-a-half" acceptable but "and-a-quarter" being too pretentious?
posted by Otto Franz Joseph Leopold von Soxen-Puppetten to Society & Culture (1 answer total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, this is like chatfilter and a half... -- LobsterMitten

 
I'm 5' 11.5", and in casual conversation, I say I'm six feet tall. I don't know what I'd say if I wasn't so close to the next foot measurement, though.
posted by xingcat at 12:37 PM on March 24, 2016


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