In 1958 oliver r. Nonstandard units of measurement are units of measurement that arent typically used such as a pencil an arm a toothpick or a shoe. 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. Smoot was rolled head over heels by his fraternity brothers to measure the length of the harvard bridge. Here are a few more. Obviously people vary in size so its best to first measure your own body parts in order to understand how close your own proportions are to these averages.
Of course the ultimate body part as measurement tool is the smoot as seen in google earth according to wikipedia the smoot is a nonstandard unit of length created as part of an mit fraternity prank. Historically units of measurement are often based on sizes of body parts. Help kindergarten or first grade students learn the rules of non standard measurement with this simple video. It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot. How to measure length using body parts. This video shows the non standard unit of measurements by using the body parts.
The cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts. Units of measurement especially length when body parts vary in size among races. Probably the most obvious example would be a foot literally being based on the length of someones or everyones or anyones actual foot. Parts of your body can be used to estimate many common units of measurement. 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. 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.
We can use just about anything as a nonstandard unit of. Hand hand fingers thumb. Other examples include inch length of a thumb from tip to first joint cubit elbow to tip of middle finger and span from tip of thumb to tip of little finger when spread as far as possible. Non standard units to measure length.
Gallery of Non Standard Units Of Measurement Body Parts
