The ancient egyptian units of measurement are those used by the dynasties of ancient egypt prior to its incorporation in the roman empire and general adoption of roman greek and byzantine units of measurementthe units of length seem to have originally been anthropic based on various parts of the human body although these were standardized using cubit rods strands of rope and official. The cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts. 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 width of your own palm the length of your own foot and so on. The quantity and the weight of the substance can be roughly identified. Then wherever you are.
Another measurement that i use is an inch made by bending my ring finger into a tabletop shape. Here are a few more. These estimates are just that. Example chefs use handfuls to measure grains rice. 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. 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.
Related to the last point the french word for inch is pouce which also. You can also watch more such english videos on english stories. Length hello kids in this video we will learn about length. Stretch out your hand so that the tip of your thumb is as far away as possible from the tip of your pinky. A more accurate way use your body parts to estimate length is to know your own measurements. It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot.
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. The association of the yard with the gird or circumference of a persons waist or with the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the thumb of king henry i reigned 11001135 are probably standardizing actions since several yards were in. Whatever its origin the early yard was divided by the binary method into 2 4 8 and 16 parts called the half yard span finger and nail. Devin johnston on january 21 2009 259 am. The handful measurement of objects using body parts. What an interesting post.
There were unbelievably many different measurement systems developed in early times most of them only being used in a small locality. A handful is a rough measurement of the quantity of dry substances that can fit into a cupped hand. 10 responses to body parts as tools of measurement chris on january 21 2009 136 am. Ancient measurement of length was based on the human body for example the length of a foot the length of a stride the span of a hand and the breadth of a thumb. We can use the hand span leg span or the cubit to measure length. The romans used this measurement and so can you.
Gallery of Ancient Measurement Body Parts
