It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot. 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. The average amount of blood in your body is an estimate because it can depend on how much you weigh your. Cubit from latin cubitum the elbow a cubit was a measurement based on the forearm from elbow to fingertip. There were unbelievably many different measurement systems developed in early times most of them only being used in a small locality. Inchthis does not include units further derived from these units eg.
The amount of blood in the human body is generally equivalent to 7 percent of body weight. In the middle ages the inch is reputed to have been the length of a medieval kings first thumb joint. Here are a few more. Measuring units in folklore and history nearly all early units of size were based on the always handy human body. English possesses several measurement words that derive from body parts. It does not include derived units further unless they are also themselves human based.
These units are thus considered to be human scale and anthropocentric. As the age of discovery came to an end and industry grew primarily in western europe it became necessary to unify units of length on a global scale. Endgroup dalila aug 19 19 at 1731. Length units based on the human body were used for thousands of years. Rod unless they are also human based eg. 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.
The cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts. This continued until a major change took place around 200 years ago. Im just looking for units not based on a human body specifically since such a culture of mixed races would not likely pick one race at random human or any of the others and then define their units based on that one race. Units of measure based on the human body or attributesabilities of a human eg. 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 is a list of units of measure based on human body parts or the attributes or abilities of humans.
Stretch out your hand so that the tip of your thumb is as far away as possible from the tip of your pinky. Today there are more than 50 officially recognized units for various scientific quantities. The exact length varied according to whose arm was being used and could be from 18 to 22 inches.
Gallery of Units Of Measurement Based On Human Body
