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.
Chapter 2 The Animal Body
Body parts used for measurement. Your forearm is about 15 feet 46 centimeters. Using your body to estimate length your hand. The width of your palm is about 4 inches 10 centimeters. Here are a few more. Cubit from latin cubitum the elbow. Long before the thumb would be used to measure almost everything.
The exact length varied according to whose arm was being used and could be from 18 to 22 inches. Stretch out the fingers of your hand. From nose to finger tip. Eight body based units of measurement cubit. Your forearm from elbow to fingertip. The cubit was just one of numerous units of measurement based on the typical size of body parts.
This is a list of units of measure based on human body parts or the attributes or abilities of humans. The distance between your nose. An average foot is about 12 inches long. Measurement using body parts was often done in the past and was highly useful. The same is true of digit in modern english. It probably goes without saying that the unit foot was based on the length of a mans foot.
Quinaria the cross sectional area of a pipe created from a flat sheet of. The thumb measures 1 inch which is now the basis of measurement. It does not include derived units further unless they are also themselves human based. Hand hand fingers thumb. A cubit was a measurement based on the forearm from elbow to fingertip. Example carpenters use their thumb to measure small insignificant measurements.
These units are thus considered to be human scale and anthropocentric area. This is the distance from a mans elbow to the tip of his middle finger which would be about 18 inches for the.
Gallery of Body Parts Used For Measurement
