Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 September 10

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September 10

How to understand this term?

Science Fantasy is normally considered a bastard genre blending elements of sf and fantas - bastard genre? Vyacheslav84 (talk) 15:40, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

See wikt:bastard#Adjective, particularly definitions (3) "Of or like a mongrel, bastardized creature/cross" and (4) "Of abnormal, irregular or otherwise inferior qualities (size, shape etc)". It's a common enough idiom to refer to something that is neither one thing nor the other, a mongrel cross. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 15:56, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

Neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring. DuncanHill (talk) 16:00, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

(To understand this term, see wikt:neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 09:27, 11 September 2023 (UTC))

Children getting taller until 16 or 18

Does a child grow until 16 or 18? 81.151.247.95 (talk) 19:47, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

It shouldn't come as a surprise that there is quite a bit of individual variation. Child_development#Physical_growth gives a range of 14 to 17 for girls and 15 to 19 for boys. --Wrongfilter (talk) 20:03, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

Depends on the individual child's genetics and environmental factors. Usually girls stop growing at a younger age than boys. You can view the statistical charts compiled by the CDC here for boys and girls. As you can see from the graphs, most girls don't grow significantly after they are 16, for boys it's closer to 18, but again it differs from person to person, and the graphs aren't even completely flat at 20 years old, so some (mostly boys) continue to grow even after their teens. - Lindert (talk) 20:09, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

So girls grow until 16 and boys until 18? 81.151.247.95 (talk) 22:46, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

It varies. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:19, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

And do they grow 6 to 7 centimeters each year? 81.151.247.95 (talk) 22:16, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

It varies. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:24, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

If an adult is about 160/170 cm (or over), does that mean the child has grown 6/7 centimeters each year until at age 16 or 18? 81.151.247.95 (talk) 20:32, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

Not necessarily. It varies per individual. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:58, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

The speed of children growing, the pace, the possible target height are influenced by a multitude of factors, some of which are: parents' height (and genetic make-up in the broader sense), course of pregnancy, nutrition (all aspects), whether parents smoke, whether teen smokes, amount of physical exercise. And it takes place in a jerky manner: you never know when they choose to grow more or less, it just happens. The late Terry Pratchett may his name forever ring out throughout the cosmos aptly put it in one of his books that you have to feed them on one end, clean the other and make sure they don't catch anything. --Ouro (blah blah) 06:59, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

Have you looked at the statistical charts linked above? They clearly show that growth starts fast, slowly decelerates, accelerates again in puperty and finally slows down to a gradual stop. PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:45, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

A child will put on a growth spurt shortly after you buy some nice fitting school clothes. If, however, you get a size larger to allow for this, the child's growth rate will slow to a stop for at least a year. It's called the "WTF, how much? You must be joking" effect. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:00, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

In terms of feet this phenomenon occurs right after You get them shoes that are more expensive than yours. --Ouro (blah blah) 11:01, 14 September 2023 (UTC)