[Fiction question] How long is the upper arm of a six-year-old child?

:(
The length of their tiny shoes. About 6 inches?

Their arms are the perfect length, just long enough to wrap around their parents bodies.
And as for their ribs, you could compare them to dog bones.

My bad guy is very, very bad.

I’m in chapter 20, and there are the bones. I don’t know dogs at all, but I do know they vary in size more than six-year-old children. I thought someone with a small child could just look and estimate for me. My kids are in their twenties.

Ah, crap… There are definitely formulas for estimating that kind of thing, but I can’t find my forensic anthropology book from college. And my google-fu is failing me, as well. WOE!

Shoulder to elbow should be about 8.8 inches, if we take the dummies these people use as approximate of the measurements of a real child. I’m guessing they would have to model the dummies fairly accurately in order to conform to crash-test guidelines. You have to expand the line that says External Dimensions under Tech Specs. And let’s see…using the chest depth measurement of 5.4 inches as a starting point, I bet we could figure out the rib length.

Man, this search really got me looking at some weird pictures. I’m pasting the link entire because it keeps giving me a strikethrough. http://www.exchange3d.com/cubecart/human/-child-anatomy-5-year-old--3d-model/prod_5287.html

That’s the best topic EVER, btw.

UPPER arm! I am wrong.

Great link, @wildpotato! I tried a lot of search terms but didn’t get to anything that could give me bone-by-bone measurements. The humerus is what I was after. But, um, I’m afraid that’s a little bit too long. I need one that is small enough to fit in a little bundle, probably six inches max, and come from a fairly meaty part of the body, and be stout enough to show teeth marks. Sorry.

Were you saying that this question was the best topic? Egad. Or did you mean the whole fiction-question series I’ve been on?

OMG, I totally want to read this story now.

I happen to have a six year old handy, and just measured his arm. From shoulder to elbow, his arm is 8 inches long. From elbow to wrist, 7 inches. He’s a bit above average in height for his age.

How about a jaw bone? That might be about six inches. Or a scapula? Clavicle? Coccyx? This is a little disturbing, to be sizing up my son’s body parts after reading what @Jeruba wrote just above!

Oh my [deity], @Jeruba, don’t let your badguy gnaw on butt bones. The clavicle sounds like a good suggestion to me.

Seems like the clavicle would be a little shy on, uh, substance. That’s a wishbone. Don’t we need good, solid muscle? The upper arm is one sturdy bone, the lower arm two skinny ones.

Sorry, guys. But this is fiction. And there has to be a reason why no country in the world would give this villain refuge. No matter what, a nation or a people guards its children. Thanks for the measures, @MissAusten! Have you ever read “Hansel and Gretel” to your little guy? Now, there’s a story that is all about eating and being eaten.

@Jeruba Yes to Hansel and Gretel, and also The Witch’s Guide to Cooking With Children. Somewhat reminiscent of Roald Dahl’s “The Witches.”