MATH 133 Unit 3 – DB – BMI – A+ Guaranteed

MATH 133 Unit 3 – DB – BMI – A+ Guaranteed
Body Mass Index
The United States is becoming more
health conscious, and as a result, the problem of obesity has gotten more
attention. The Body Mass Index (BMI), relates a person’s height and weight, and
is often used to determine if someone is overweight. The table below tells the
weight status for a given BMI.

BMI

Weight
Status

Below
18.5

Underweight

18.5
– 24.9

Normal

24.9
– 29.9

Overweight

29.9
and above

Obese

The BMI is calculated using the
formula:

BMI = 703*w / h2 where
w is the weight in pounds and h is the height in inches.

1.
Using the Internet, AIU’s library, or
another research source, find the weight of your favorite celebrity. This could
be a movie or television personality, athlete, or a politician. You may also
use yourself.
2. Using the weight you found in
Question 1, determine the height the celebrity (or yourself) would need to be
to fall into each of the four weight status categories listed in the table. In
other words, select a BMI less than 18.5 (any value), and find h. Then, repeat
using a new BMI in each range. Show all of your work for each of these
calculations.
2.
Using your chosen BMI values and the
corresponding four heights calculated in Question 2, and using Excel or another
graphing utility, draw the graph of your celebrity’s heights as a function of
the BMI. (The function being graphed is h = sqrt(703 × w / BMI), so BMI is the
independent [or horizontal] variable.) Insert the graph into a Word document,
and attach that Word document to the DB thread, or paste your graph into the DB
thread.
Using the Internet or other library
resource, find the actual height of your celebrity
Using the height found in Question 4,
calculate the person’s actual weight status (underweight, normal, overweight,
or obese) using the original BMI formula above
6. What would be the height
range (minimum and maximum heights) for your celebrity to be in the normal
weight status? In other words, based on your celebrity’s weight, what would be
the heights of the celebrity at BMIs of 18.5 and 24.9? (Show these
calculations.)
7. Based on the celebrity’s
appearance, would you consider him or her to actually be in the weight status
that this formula says based on his or her actual height and weight and
considering his or her other physical characteristics? Why or why not? Think
about why there may be differences in your calculations and the actual figures.
8. The BMI formula was created
by a Belgian statistician (not a physician), Lambert Adolphe Quetelet, in about
1832. Quetelet was trying to determine the “average” person’s weight relative
to his or her height. His “Quetelet index” (later known as the BMI) was
developed using height and weight data of Europeans in the early 1800s. Do you
think that BMI is a fair indication of a person’s weight classification today?
Why or why not?
9. According to data collected
by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey III, the following quadratic functions approximately represent the
median BMI values for men and women in the United States, where x is their age
(Halls, 2008; Halls, 2008):
10. For your celebrity’s age,
calculate the median BMI from the appropriate quadratic function above. Is your
celebrity’s actual BMI over or under this calculated median value? (Show all of
your work.)
11. After studying BMI, why do
you think that BMI is so widely used by the federal government, health industry
professionals, and insurance companies as a measure of a person’s overall
health?
12. Summarize your findings in
writing using proper style and grammar.
13. Which intellipath Learning
Nodes helped you with this assignment?