Abstract
MR. TWIGG at p. 340 of your issue of February 8 points out that the Japanese had an unquestionable advantage in the recent war, as being smaller than the Russians—they were smaller targets for fire-arms. This is quite correct, but the advantage is inversely as the cubes of their heights, and not as the squares only, which would only apply to plank dummies. Bullets come from all sides, and not from the front only, so that the thickness of the men's bodies must be taken into account as well as their height and breadth. The average targets offered by each to the enemy are (taking Mr. Twigg's figures) as the cubes of 1585 and 1642, or as 106 to 118, an advantage in favour of the Japanese of about 12 percent., or nearly double that calculated by Mr. Twigg.
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WARRAND, W. Result of War affected by Soldier's Stature. Nature 73, 414 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/073414b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/073414b0
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