  We investigate the temperature-dependent effective size of a trapped
interacting atomic Bose gas within a mean field theory approximation. The
sudden shrinking of the average length, as observed in an earlier experiment by
Wang {\it et al.} [Chin. Phys. Lett. {\bf 20}, 799 (2003)], is shown to be a
good indication for Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). Our study also supports
the use of the average width of a trapped Bose gas for a nondestructive
calibration of its temperature.
