Quinaria the cross sectional area of a pipe created from a flat sheet of lead 5 digits wide stremma the amount of land a person can plow in a day. At first an inch was the width of a mans thumb. Measuring parts of the body. As part of this activity students visit the powerplay exhibit at the childrens museum of houston. Attempt to measure your arm but. An average foot is about 12 inches long.

Eight body based units of measurement cubit. It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot. Hand hand fingers thumb. Stretch out the fingers of your hand. First nothing in nature is consistent enough for precision measurement they get used early then abandoned the name sticks around the unt they no longer use the actual thing. The length of a foot the width of a finger and the distance of a step were all accepted measurements.

A cubit was a measurement based on the forearm from elbow to fingertip. From nose to finger tip. Today only the stone continues in customary use for measuring personal body weight. Examples include body parts grain seeds or livestock body parts feet were the most common just becasue the first thing that people are measuring is ground distances and feet are convenient. The distance between your nose. A yard was originally the length of a mans belt or girdle as it was called.

The exact length varied according to whose arm was being used and could be from 18 to 22 inches. The present stone is 14 pounds 635 kg but an earlier unit appears to have been 16 pounds 725 kg. It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot. Using your body to estimate length your hand. 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. Cubit from latin cubitum the elbow.

Students practice estimating and measuring in metric units and investigate the concepts of ratio and proportion as they relate to features of the human body. Your forearm from elbow to fingertip. The same is true of digit in modern english. Here are a few more. Hold out your arm and take a tape measure or ruler. In ancient times the body ruled when it came to measuring.

Now that the key vocabulary has been reviewed we can move onto the fun part of the lesson measuring parts of the body. This is the distance from a mans elbow to the tip of his middle finger which would be about 18 inches for the. Digit in latin digitus could mean either finger or toe. The cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts. Your forearm is about 15 feet 46 centimeters. Model how to measure have everyone sit down facing the board.

The width of your palm is about 4 inches 10 centimeters.

Gallery of Body Parts Used For Measurement