Stretch out your hand so that the tip of your thumb is as far away as possible from the tip of your pinky. A unit is the name of a quantity such as kilogram or pound.
My Fingers Are So Smart They Measure Yanko Design
Units of measurement based on human body. Eight body based units of measurement cubit. Stretch out the fingers of your hand. Cubit from latin cubitum the elbow. Historically many of the systems of measurement which had been in use were to some extent based on the dimensions of the human body. As a result units of measure could vary not only from location to location but from person to person. The cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts.
The exact length varied according to whose arm was being used and could be from 18 to 22 inches. That distance is called a span which for most people is almost exactly half a cubit. Rod unless they are also human based eg. A standard is the physical embodiment of a unit such as the platinum iridium cylinder kept by the international bureau of weights and measures at paris as the standard kilogram. This is the distance from a mans elbow to the tip of his middle finger which would be about 18 inches for the. This does not include units further derived from these units eg.
It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot. A cubit was a measurement based on the forearm from elbow to fingertip. It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot. Digit in latin digitus could mean either finger or toe. Following alexander the greats conquest of persia and subsequent de. From wikipedia the free encyclopedia the main article for this category is anthropic units.
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 measurement. The 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 measures maintained at some temples. The same is true of digit in modern english. 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. Here are a few more. Units of measure based on the human body or attributesabilities of a human eg.