How heavy is an arm?

I mean a live human arm full of juice, and not the tidily isolated arm
of a cadaver.  If a fresh arm were detached and placed on a scale, how
much would it weigh in pounds and ounces?

Thought of another way, how much weight of relaxed arm does the arm of
a chair have to bear?  When my husband puts his arm around my
shoulder, how much of his weight am I carrying?  What are my arm
muscles lifting even when I'm empty-handed?

I am interested in seeing an answer expressed as

(a)  an average--the typical adult human male arm (live) weighs x and
the typical adult human female arm weighs y

and

(b) a proportion of body weight, so that given a body weight of n, I
can calculate approximately what a single arm will weigh.

Bet you’re wondering what *this* one’s really about!

Thank you,
Apteryx

Hello Apteryx,

It seems that the average arm weighs around 5% to 6% of total body
weight.

sources:

" One arm weighs about 5% of body weight "
source: "The Human Environment", page 677
http://www.aiha.org/PublicationsAdvertising/documents/wbweb/chp26.pdf

"  A typical person's arm is about 5% of their body weight (source:
anthropometric data derived from cadaver studies)"
source: newgroup
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=5o513s%24v3k%241%40news.fas.harvard.edu&rnum=6

"The average human arm weighs approximately 6% of the total body
weight."
http://www.vistalab.com/posture.asp

------------------------

Now the total body weight of average woman is reportedly anywhere from
135 to 150 pounds. The average man is estimated to be somewhere around
170-190 lbs.

sources:

"Mike Pollay, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in
Prescott, Ariz. [says that] an average man weighs 175 pounds, while an
average woman weighs 135"
source: Las Vegas Review Journal
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2001/Aug-15-Wed-2001/news/16776500.html

"The average woman weighs 138 pounds...
The average man weighs 170 pounds"
http://www.edu.pe.ca/cardigan/classof/20012002/grade7/projects/mystery/everyday1.htm

"Today's average woman weighs 150 pounds and the average American man
weighs 190 pounds."
source: National Health Center Statistics, cached by google:
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:08yn8lSuB-cJ:www.positivelyme.org/presskit/trends.doc+average%22+man+weighs%22+%22woman+weighs%22+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

---------

Now applying 5-6% to 135-150, you've got to figure that the average
woman's arm is in the 7 to 9 pound range.  Figuring 5-6% of 170-190,
the average man's arm would be around 8 to 12 pounds.

Indeed, a web page about ergonomics has a similar statistic:

" On average, arms weigh between 8 and 14 lbs. each"
http://www.sishft.com/ergonomics/ergonomics.html

--------

search strategy:
"arm weighs"
"arms weigh"
"man weighs", "woman weighs"

I hope this helps.

Quite perfect, juggler.  Could not be more apt.  I thank you.  Now
would you like to guess why I asked?  That was not my original
intention, but respree gave me the idea.

Apteryx

The suspense is killing me.

Would you mind sharing why you want to know? =)

Hmm--you found the question tantalizing?  Now you've got me thinking,
respree--how about a little game?  I'll tell you, but first, why don't
you see if you can *guess*?

For now, I'll give you this much.  I hardly ever do anything for just
one reason.  In this case, there are two, and they are completely
unrelated.  But I will give full marks for just one and call it a
winner.

Apteryx

Thanks for the tip, Apteryx.

Gee, I don't know... I'm not a very good guesser...  Perhaps your
personal trainer told you to lift 10 pounds a day, and you're hoping
to get by on a technicality by counting your arms as weights?  :-)

Hmmmm.

Are you planning on opening a butcher's shop for cannibals? =)

Or perhaps you're contemplating lopping off body parts to win a "who
can lose the most weight" contest. =)

No more guesses?  Well, okay.  I guess sundered limbs aren't
everyone's cup of tea.

In the first place, whenever I write anything, I like to check all my
facts as thoroughly as possible.  Even if it's a piece of fiction, any
factual content has to be as accurate as I can make it.  A number of
my GA queries have been fact-checking missions for something I was
writing.  In the present case, it figures in a story.

The other reason is that I have sometimes really been aware of the
weight when someone puts an arm around me, and so I simply became
curious (probably because I am simply of a disposition to be curious
about all kinds of things all the time) about what the true weight
was, as opposed to what it seemed like to me.

Thanks for playing along.
Apteryx