There exists an absolute constant $c_0$ such that for any n-dimensional Banach space E there exists a k-dimensional subspace F ⊂ E with k≤ n/2 such that $in{f}_{ellipsoid\epsilon \subset B_E}{(vol\left(B_E\right)/vol\left(\epsilon \right))}^{1/n}\le c_{0}in{f}_{zonoidZ\subset B_F}{(vol\left(B_F\right)/vol\left(Z\right))}^{1/k}$ . The concept of volume ratio with respect to ${\ell }_p$-spaces is used to prove the following distance estimate for $2\le q\le p<\infty$: $su{p}_{F\subset {\ell }_p,dimF=n}in{f}_{G\subset L_q,dimG=n}d(F,G){\sim }_{c_{pq}}{n}^{(q/2)(1/q-1/p)}$.

The geometry of random projections of centrally symmetric convex bodies in ${ℝ}^N$ is studied. It is shown that if for such a body K the Euclidean ball $B{₂}^N$ is the ellipsoid of minimal volume containing it and a random n-dimensional projection $B=P_H\left(K\right)$ is “far” from $P_H\left(B{₂}^N\right)$ then the (random) body B is as “rigid” as its “distance” to $P_H\left(B{₂}^N\right)$ permits. The result holds for the full range of dimensions 1 ≤ n ≤ λN, for arbitrary λ ∈ (0,1).