Your average stride length is easy to calculate.
Knowing the length of your stride can be helpful for many reasons. You can use your average stride length to calculate the distance from one point to another, the length of a car or other large object, or even the approximate square footage of a house. And if orienteering is your new hobby, knowing the length of your stride can make the difference between confidently finding the next destination and wondering if you've already gone too far.
Instructions
1. Use chalk to mark a starting point on a flat stretch of sidewalk.
2. Stand a few steps before the mark on the sidewalk. This will allow you to get into your normal stride before you begin measuring.
3. Walk straight forward on the sidewalk. When you reach your chalk mark, begin counting. Stop after you have taken 10 steps from the chalk mark. Walk comfortably and as you normally would; do not try to take bigger steps than normal. It is easier to recreate your normal stride than to remember exactly how much you stretched your legs to achieve a longer stride. Use chalk to mark where you stopped, then measure the distance between the two chalk marks. Write down this number.
4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 several more times.
5. Add up the total number of feet you wrote down from each time you repeated Step 3, then divide this number by the number of times you repeated Step 3. Let's say you repeated Step 3 four different times. The first time, you walked 21 feet in your 10 steps. The second time you walked 22. The third time you walked 24 and the fourth time you walked 22. Add up all those numbers for a result of 89. Divide this number by four---the number of times you repeated Step 3---for a result of 22.25.
6. Divide the number you just calculated by 10---the number of steps you took each time you repeated Step 3. In this example, we would divide 22.25 by 10 for a result of 2.225. This means your average stride length is 2.225 feet.
Tags: repeated Step, chalk mark, time walked, average stride, average stride length