Height of a 5-Story Building: Simple Guide and Typical Measurements

Okay, so I’ve been getting into this whole “figuring out building heights” thing lately. It started as a simple curiosity, and now I’m kind of obsessed. Today’s project was a 5-story building. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong!

First, I walked around my neighborhood looking for a decent 5-story building to use as my test subject. I found a few, but they were either too close to other buildings, making it hard to get a good look, or they had weird stuff on the roof that would mess up my measurements. Finally, I spotted this older brick building that seemed perfect.

Height of a 5-Story Building: Simple Guide and Typical Measurements

Next, I tried to use some online info to get a general idea, you know, just to have a ballpark figure in mind. Some sources said around 50 feet, others said closer to 75. One even mentioned something about 40 feet, which seemed way too short. 10 feet per floor? 15 feet per floor? 14 feet? What is the correct answer! It’s all over the place! Some said that the depth will be 7 feet. So I decided to just go with the average, which seemed to be somewhere between 55 and 75 feet.

Then came the actual measuring part. I initially thought about pacing it out, but that seemed super inaccurate. So, I remembered this old trick using shadows and similar triangles. I measured my own shadow and my height. Then, I measured the building’s shadow. But of course, the sun decided to play hide-and-seek right when I needed it most. Clouds rolled in, and the shadows got all fuzzy and unclear.

I waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally, the sun peeked out for a few minutes. I rushed to get my measurements, scribbling them down in my notebook like a madman. After that, it was just a bunch of calculations, plugging the numbers into the formula. Also I measured the height of a floor with my steps. About 12 feet! So I summarized them up!

In the end, after all that, my estimate for the height of that 5-story building came out to be roughly 60 feet, say 25 meters. Not too shabby, right? But honestly, the whole process was way more involved than I expected. It’s not just about the height of each floor; it’s also about the thickness of the floors and ceilings, the foundation, any roof structures… it’s a lot! And it made me realize that there will be some error between my calculation and the real one.

My “scientific” method:

  • Find a building.
  • Google average heights.
  • Measure shadows (if the sun cooperates).
  • Do some math.
  • Measure with my steps.
  • Summarize.
  • Come up with a guess.
  • Realize it’s probably not 100% accurate.
  • Get strangely obsessed with building heights.

Anyway, that was my adventure for today. Tomorrow, I’m thinking of tackling a 10-story building. Wish me luck!

Height of a 5-Story Building: Simple Guide and Typical Measurements

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