Increase in boob circumference and other things

In the constant quest for knowledge that bedevils us humans, I have been reading The Hair of the Dog and Other Scientific Surprises by Karl Sabbagh and have learnt how to work out the extra amount of rope needed to raise a length of rope encircling the world at the equator by about 3 feet or 1 metre. Thinking along the lines of the size of my waist when I was young, and the size of a belt to encompass it now, I thought the new length of rope would need to be a good few miles longer than the equator hugging line. But I was wrong. Not only that, I have learnt that you don't even need to know the circumference of the world, or its diameter! There are equations to explain it but for readers of this blog it is sufficient to know that the actual answer is about 6 metres, or 18 feet. Which is about a thousand miles less than the answer I had in mind. It turns out that any size of rope circle needs to be lengthened by 3.14 units to make a circle 1 unit larger in diameter; 3.14 being pi.

Excited by this newly-gained knowledge, I have just been encircling my left bosom with a tape measure in order to work out the size of bra I would need if the circumference of the  bosom in question was increased by half a cm all round, which would, of course, mean a base diameter of twice that size, namely one centimetre. Based on the rope-round-the-equator lesson I think the circumference around my boob would be 3.14 cms bigger.

When I tried to explain all this to Mr A, saying the new boob measurement was all to do with pi, he said, 'You should've put the tape measure round your belly then if pies are involved.'

Sadly, of course, and I expect my female blog readers will have worked this one out, all of this careful measuring and the imaginary 1 cm extra around the base wouldn't give me the new cup size.

'I'm just going to read on to see if Karl Sabbagh has included a chapter on the increasing mass dimensions of mountains,' I told Mr A.

'Yeh, right,' he responded, 'why not see if he's written a bit about mole hills, that'd be more near the mark.'

And, again he wondered why I hit him!!