In body based units of measurement at interesting thing of the day i listed a few such historical units of measure which can still come in handy for rough approximations if you dont have a ruler or tape. Although we might think there is an inescapable logic in dividing it in a systematic manner this ignores the way that measuring grew up with people measuring shorter lengths using other parts of the human body.
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History of measurement using body parts. Another measurement that i use is an inch made by bending my ring finger into a tabletop shape. The digit was the smallest basic unit being the breadth of a finger. At first an inch was the width of a mans thumb. The other units were multiples of 2 8 and 160 times the stone or 28 112 and 2240 pounds 127 kg 508 kg 1016 kg respectively. Measurement is conventionally done in multiples of 2 3 and 4 so fahrenheit splits his scale into 12 sections each of them divided into 8 equal parts. The present stone is 14 pounds 635 kg but an earlier unit appears to have been 16 pounds 725 kg.
Here are a few more. Devin johnston on january 21 2009 259 am. Today only the stone continues in customary use for measuring personal body weight. To measure smaller lengths required subdivisions of the royal cubit. The bible clearly details the measurements of noahs ark in cubits a unit of measure based on the length of the forearm from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow. 10 responses to body parts as tools of measurement chris on january 21 2009 136 am.
In ancient times the body ruled when it came to measuring. Knowing the approximate length of my arm is surprisingly handy because its extremely easy to use for rough measurements. In the 14th century king edward ii of england ruled that 1 inch equalled 3 grains of barley placed end to end lengthwise. The very first examples revolve using body parts as a way of measuring length and height and stones for weight. Before we had precise standardized units of measure such as meters and feet lengths and even ocasionally volumes were reckoned based on the average dimensions of human body parts. This gives him a total of 96 degrees zero being the freezing point of brine and 96 in his somewhat inaccurate reading the average temperature of human blood.
Related to the last point the french word for inch is pouce which also. Hand hand fingers thumb. The length of a foot the width of a finger and the distance of a step were all accepted measurements. The cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts. What an interesting post.
Gallery of History Of Measurement Using Body Parts
