Am I taller in the morning?

One day, the great scientist, Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree, bunking school. Suddenly something fell from the tree on his head and what was it? An apple. This incident doesn’t seem shocking to us. But, a question arose in his mind because of this very incident: why did the apple fell down and didn’t go in the opposite direction?

This led to the discovery of the gravitational force which has since become the basis for understanding the universe on a deeper level.

Gravitational force is responsible for all of us being grounded to the earth’s surface and not floating around in the atmosphere.

Now you might be thinking how is this related to our topic. Let us learn their connection further.

Contents

Am I taller in the morning?

Our body is able to stand straight and move majorly because of the presence of the vertebral column, also called spine. Our vertebrae are aligned on top of each other with specialized discs in between them known as “intervertebral discs”. This disc helps as a shock absorber and avoids the rubbing of two vertebrae.

When we wake up in the morning and start walking, we exert some pressure on the ground. And as a response, gravitational force works on us. As the day passes, due to gravitational force, the discs in our vertebral column gets compressed. Not just the vertebral disc, but the discs present in the knees also gets compressed. Hence, at night we are shorter than in the morning.

When we sleep at night, the gravitational force no longer works on the disc. Instead, it is equal on the whole body. That’s why we tend to get shorter at night and a little taller or back to actual size in the morning.

Fun Facts

  1. A normal person tends to be about 1 to 2 com taller in the morning as compared to the night.
  2. Due to the effect of gravitation and other related factors, we can say our height changes all day long.
  3. After the age of 40, you start shrinking. This is because the disc in your knees and vertebra start degenerating or get compressed permanently.

Related questions

Some related questions to this topic.

  1. How does our spine fit together?
  2. Elaborate on the knee joint.
  3. Explain the importance of the vertebral column.

True Or False

  1. Our height remains the same throughout the day.
  2. There is no force called gravitational force.
  3. Change in height is because of the blood that flows in our body.
  4. The vertebral disc gets compressed causing us to get shorter till night.
  5. With gravitation, we can fly in the air instead of walking as per our wish.

Objective Quiz

  1. The force that causes us to walk on the ground is _________.
    1. Gravitational force.
    2. Rotational force.
    3. Motion force.
    4. Kinetic force.
  2. We tend to be ________ in the morning as compared to the night.
    1. Taller.
    2. Shorter.
    3. Smaller.
    4. None of the above.
  3. The reason behind us being shorter at night is ________.
    1. Compression of disc due to gravitation force working on it.
    2. Compression of disc because of no blood supply.
    3. Compression of disc because of a signal send by brain.
    4. There is no such phenomenon.
  4. We start to get shrink by the age of _______.
    1. 40 years.
    2. 20 years.
    3. 30 years.
    4. 5 years.
  5. Our height changes _________.
    1. All day long.
    2. Just in the morning.
    3. Just in the night.
    4. There is no change.

 

 

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