If you’ve looked for guys on dating apps, you know the truth: All of us lie about our heights. Yes, all men. I’m not ashamed to admit that I round up to 5-foot-11 (or 6-even with quarantine hair).
Now, though, Gen Z women on TikTok have engineered a creative way to learn the truth (and call out our bullshit). Dani Gadelha, a 20-year-old graphic design student at the University of Iowa, stumbled upon classmate Zach Grant, 20, on Tinder. In his picture, Grant and a buddy are holding a few cold Coronas. Sorry, Zach, she thought to herself. She couldn’t resist.
She screen-recorded her phone, searching for the height of a Corona bottle, digitally cutting out the bottle and stacking a few to determine Grant’s height. She posted the investigation to TikTok on Tuesday — “hi i’m dani and i’ll find out your height no matter the cost,” she wrote — and the video racked up over 4 million views after being reposted on the Barstool Sports and the Call Her Daddy accounts.
Gadelha’s great Corona bottle height test — which took a grand total of six minutes to complete — deduced Zach was 5-foot-11, plus a quarter inch.
And she was only 0.125 inches off. After the video went viral, Grant responded to the video saying, “I’m actually 5’11” and ⅛ ? why this so accurate though.”
Does this test actually work? Can you really determine someone’s height based on whatever object is next to them? It’s likely.
Shortly after, Niccoya Thomas, a 17-year-old high school student in Tennessee, posted a mathematical spin on the test. Thomas set up a formula of the photo-size Corona bottle and height equaling the life-size Corona bottle. She crunched some numbers to determine Grant’s height. She got the same answer as Gadelha: 5 feet, 11.25 inches.
“I just did it because I felt it was easier. And I like math, so,” Thomas tells me of her advanced fact-checking. Though there’s one thing Thomas couldn’t solve with a math equation: Grant’s feelings. “I feel sorry for Zach. He has everybody caring about his height,” she says.
Grant, who learned about the video after it went viral, has no hurt feelings. “Girls will find out everything. Seeing it everywhere is kinda cool. Just know I still consider myself 6-foot ?,” he tells me over Instagram DM.
So the test most likely works. (To confirm, we also ran it by physics and math professors, and we’ll update if we hear back.) Gadelha says she’s tried the technique with photos of other guys using a standard doorway frame, a Lipton Brisk Iced Tea can, Mountain Dew two-liter bottle, and even a Beats Pill speaker.
However, Gadelha and Grant likely won’t work out so well. She swiped left on him. “I’m kind of starting to see somebody a little bit more seriously now, so yeah, I had to be loyal,” she says.
Grant is taking it in stride. “All good. ? ? Probably cause I’m not 6-foot,” he says.
Joseph Longo
Joseph Longo is a culture and entertainment journalist whose work has appeared in The Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly and more. He's still trying to understand what it means to be a Gemini Rising.
