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@EdwardZ
The most famous observation was that the length of a person's "arm span" (tips of the middle fingers to tips) is more or less the same as their height.
Measure the length of your foot. Now measure the length of your lower arm: elbow to wrist. Compare the lengths!
So we see that arm length is correlated to height, Foot length is correlated to lower arm length.
Variations are in upper-arm length, neck, shoulders.. hip width.. But they are themselves correlated with other limb segment lengths...
How about.. Length of hand... length of face?
The correlation of height to shoe size can't clearly be as strong but its reasonable.. its good enough that height can be predicated from shoe size..
Measure the length of your tibia (shinbone). Now measure the width of your hips. Compare!
Cultural or racial differences are, however, found in femur length. There is no good correlation between other limb segment lengths and femur lengths that cuts accross groups. The differences in the ratio of femur to tibia lengths are, however, under 30% accross 95% of the population.
Race? Blacks have a greater tendency toward mesomorphy and, on average, have shorter trunks and longer extremities than whites. Since black youths tend to have also more narrow hips than white youths of the same stature its follows that blacks tend to have longer relative femurs. The reason, however, that blacks tend not to dominate in cycling-- in contrast to track and field where the vast majority of the record holders in the men's 100-meter dash have been black athletes--- is that they also tend to have more mass and more fat distribution in their extremities--- counterproducture to elite cycling performance.
Oh.. before I forget.. No women don't have longer legs then men. The association is a cultural norm derived from the observation that girls and boys have different growth patterns and during male puberty the same aged girls have comparatively longer legs than the boys. Long legs = fertile. The reality of the matter.. Take away the high heels and..