What is the height of the wave?

Adult male humans are all roughly 6 feet or 2 meters tall. This surfer is not yet at the bottom of the wave. We estimated that the wave he is riding is about 36 feet, or 12 meters high. This wave was too big to catch by paddling, and this surfer was "towed in" to catch this wave.

How high are the waves right now?

This answer will vary. If you look at the website for a while, you will get different views of the waves. Some are better than others.

How high is that jump?

The basketball player on the right, Sacramento Monarchs' Ticha Penicheiro, is jumping next to her opponent, Phoenix Mercury's Rankica Sarenac. Rankica, the player on the left, is not jumping, so we can use her as our measurement benchmark. Ticha's waist is about as high as Rankica's head, so her waist is about 5 feet, or 1.75 meters, above the ground.

The leaping dancer on the left has jumped about the same height as the basketball player. The dancer's waist is also about 5 feet, or 1.75 meters, above the ground.

How wide is that gap?

Using the height of the skateboarder as your benchmark, the gap is about 1.5 times wider than the skateboarder is tall. If we assume that he is about 6 feet, or 2 meters, tall, then the gap is about 9 feet, or 3 meters wide.

Return to Lesson.