ax + b = c

As you work through Algebra, you will see that
much of the time the numbers are a bit, shall
we say "messy".

Quite frankly this formula isn't too bad if you
have algebra skills and a calculator.

Normal human body temperature is 98.6 degrees F.
What is this in Celsius degrees?

Well, to solve here, we simply place the 98.6 into the
formula for F and we get:

Now this brings us to something extremely interesting.

Did you know that the lengths of human bones are related by linear sentences?

Yep, these math sentences can be used to estimate heights of people if certain bones are found.

Archaeologists, paleontologists, and forensic scientists all use these techniques to recreate dead bodies.

Let's say for example you find a leg bone, a femur (thigh bone). If you measure that bone in CENTIMETERS and put that measurement into one of the formulas below, you can tell how tall the human it belonged to was.

for men: height =(approx.) 69.089 + 2.238f (f= length of femur)
for women: height +(approx.) 61.412 + 2.317f

Click HERE if you want to learn more about this mathematical bone stuff.

THIS REALLY HAPPENED TO US!

We were excavating behind our barn about 5 years ago, when we found this bone.
bone.jpg (4565 bytes)

At first we were scared, but we did not find any other bones. So we figured that probably some wild animal had drug the bone from a gravesite several hundred or even thousands of years ago.

For that reason, we never reported it to the police. We just kept the bone to use in our classes as an example of this concept.

Now we did not know if the bone came from a woman or a man, so we had to figure out the formulas for both.

The femur was 45 cm long. So if it came from a man, he would have been:

height =(approx.) 69.089 + 2.238(45)

height =(approx.) 169.799cm or 66.85 inches

If it had come from a woman, she would have been:

height=(approx.) 61.412 + 2.317(45)

height=(approx) 165.677cm or 65.23 inches

Now Madonna is 160 cm tall (that is about 5 feet 3 inches). So how long would her femur be in centimeters?

click HERE to see if you are correct.

Clues from footprints show that a man was 180 cm tall. A partial skeleton is found in which the femur is 50 cm long. Could this be a matchup?

click HERE to see if you are correct.

Yes it is possible because a femur that long would yield a height of
approximately 181 cm or about 6 feet.