Human adult vs Hippopotamus
Human adult (1.7 m) is 1.13× the size of hippopotamus (1.5 m).
Hippopotamus is 88% of the height of human adult. The gap between them is 20 cm (0.66 ft).
The comparison in numbers
| Thing | Size | In feet | Measured as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human adult | 1.7 m | 5.58 ft | height |
| Hippopotamus | 1.5 m | 4.92 ft | shoulder height |
What the scale shows
Human adult (1.7 m) is 1.13× the size of hippopotamus (1.5 m). The gap between them is 20 cm (0.66 ft). Both are animals, so the figures describe the same kind of thing.
Draw both on one baseline and the smaller one fills 88% of the frame while the larger one runs to the top. The two are close enough that the difference is easy to see side by side.
Read the rest — 8 more sections
What each figure means
The figure for human adult is its height (a round reference height). The figure for hippopotamus is its shoulder height (a typical adult).
Crossing them
Walking pace is 1.4 m/s, so crossing human adult's 1.7 m takes 1.2 seconds and hippopotamus's 1.5 m takes 1.1 seconds.
In people: human adult is 1 adults of 1.7 m tall, hippopotamus is 0.88. By size human adult is 18th of the 23 animals on this site and hippopotamus is 19th, so 1 place separates them in the ranking.
How to read these two figures
Before trusting any comparison, check what each number measures. The human adult is given as a height, a round reference height. The hippopotamus is given as a shoulder height, a typical adult. One is a height and the other is a shoulder height, so the drawing stands them side by side by convention: everything is stood upright on a single baseline so one scale can hold. That is a fair way to compare overall extent, not a claim that the two are oriented the same way in real life.
Animal sizes vary from one individual to the next, so each figure says which individual or average it describes. Heights are taken at the shoulder or standing; lengths run nose to tail tip unless stated.
Where the pair sits among all the sizes here
Across all 86 things on this site, the human adult is number 81 from the top and the hippopotamus is number 82. No other item falls between them, so in this collection they are direct neighbours.
Because the collection spans 13 mm up to 1,392,700 km, a ratio of 107,130,769,231× from smallest to largest, the position of a pair says a lot: both sit in the lower third of the list.
What the length ratio hides
A length ratio of 1.13× is easy to picture, but area and volume grow faster than length. If two objects had exactly the same shape, the human adult would have about 1.28× the surface or footprint of the hippopotamus, and about 1.46× the volume. For animals volume tracks weight, which is why a long animal is far heavier than its length suggests, and why a small animal cannot simply be a scaled-down copy of a large one.
The drawing above shows length only. The hippopotamus is drawn 88% as tall as the human adult, but the equivalent share of footprint would be only 77.9%, which is why the smaller one looks even slighter than the numbers alone suggest.
Time to cross each one
A sprinter holding about 10 m/s covers the human adult in 170 milliseconds and the hippopotamus in 150 milliseconds. Sound, at about 343 m/s in air, takes 5 milliseconds for the larger and 4 milliseconds for the smaller. A jet cruising at 900 km/h needs 7 milliseconds and 6 milliseconds.
These times assume a straight line and constant speed, which no real crossing has, but they turn a number in metres into something the body understands. At any fixed speed the travel times keep the same 1.13× ratio as the sizes.
The same figures in other units
The human adult measures 1.7 m, which is 5.58 ft or 1.9 yards. The hippopotamus measures 1.5 m, which is 4.92 ft.
The difference between them is 20 cm (0.66 ft). In metres the smaller one is 1.5 against 1.7, so the 1.13× ratio holds in every unit; only the numbers on the ruler change.
Questions people ask about this pair
Which is bigger, the human adult or the hippopotamus?
The human adult is bigger. At 1.7 m it is 1.13× the size of the hippopotamus, which is 1.5 m.
How many times does the hippopotamus fit along the human adult?
Less than twice: the hippopotamus is 88% of the size of the human adult, so one fits with 20 cm to spare.
Are the two figures measured the same way?
No. The human adult is a height (a round reference height) and the hippopotamus is a shoulder height (a typical adult), so read the comparison as overall extent.
How does the gap look in people?
Taking an adult of 1.7 m, the human adult is about 1 people tall and the hippopotamus is about 0.88. The gap of 20 cm is 0.1 people.
Where do the numbers come from?
Each item has its own page that names the measurement and links to the Wikipedia article it was taken from. Some figures are rounded, and animals vary from one individual to the next, so treat them as representative values rather than records for every case.
How the sizes are taken. Each figure says what it measures — height, length, diameter or elevation — and for which individual or convention. Everything is drawn standing upright on one baseline so a single scale holds, including things that are long rather than tall. Values come from the linked Wikipedia article for each item.