At first an inch was the width of a mans thumb. 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.
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History of measurement using body parts. Cubits were a standard unit of length in sumeria egypt and other parts of the middle east long before anyone dreamed of an arbitrary decimal based measuring system. Egyptians mainly used their cubits to measure objects. There were unbelievably many different measurement systems developed in early times most of them only being used in a small locality. The roman mile of 5000 feet 1480 m was introduced into england during the occupation. In the 14th century king edward ii of england ruled that 1 inch equalled 3 grains of barley placed end to end lengthwise. This is called non standard measurements.
Ancient people measured objects using different body parts. In ancient times the body ruled when it came to measuring. The romans also introduced the mille passus 1000 paces or double steps the pace being equal to five roman feet 1480 mm. Each persons body part differed from another persons body part. Eight body based units of measurement. The length of a foot the width of a finger and the distance of a step were all accepted measurements.
Based on the human body it was taken to be the length of an arm from the elbow to the extended fingertips. For an average adult male at least average as of a couple of millennia ago a cubit works out to about 18 inches 457cm. The roman foot 296 mm was divided into both 12 unciae inches 247 mm and 16 digits 185 mm. 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 measure handy. One which gained a certain universal nature was that of the egyptian cubit developed around 3000bc.
Gallery of History Of Measurement Using Body Parts
