The body surface area (BSA) of any adult, when derived from the arithmetic mean of the different values calculated from four independent accepted formulae, can be expressed accurately in Systeme International d'Unites (SI) units by the simple equation BSA = 1/6(WH)0.5, where W is body weight in kg, H is body height in m, and BSA is in m2. This formula, which is derived in part by modeling the body as a simple solid of revolution or a prolate spheroid (i.e., a stretched ellipsoid of revolution) gives students, teachers, and clinicians a simple rule for the rapid estimation of surface area using rational units. The formula was tested independently for human subjects by using it to predict body volume and then comparing this prediction against the actual volume measured by Archimedes' principle.
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Reading et al. (2005) studied this question.