A Primitive Man's Guide to Measuring

Have you ever tried on measuring the length or width of anything using your finger? Palm? Foot? Or any part of your body?

If not, why not try it on now with me? Let us determine the dimension of a one whole sheet of yellow paper using either a foot or the width of our thumb. Then let us compare our results.

	Sheet of a yellow paper
	length	width
Part used	foot	thumb
My measurement	1 ½	14
Your measurement

Question: Were there differences between the two data? Were the differences as big as the differences when you used these units of measurement? What do you think caused those differences?

One of the earliest tools that human beings invented was the unit of measurement. In olden times, people needed measurement to determine how long or wide things are; things they need to build their houses or make their clothes. Later, units of measurement were used in trade and commerce. In the 3^rd century BC Egyptians used their body parts to determine measurements of things.

The forearm length was one of the first recorded units of measurement and was called cubit: the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.

The handspan is considered as a half cubit: the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger of one’s hand with fingers spread apart. (Check how many hand spans your forearm length is)

The palm was considered ⅙ of a cubit: the width of one’s hand excluding the thumb.

A digit is the thickness or width of the index finger.

The inch we use today came from the thickness or width of a thumb according to the Romans.

A foot was a length of a foot.

A yard was decreed by King Henry I of England was the distance from the tip of his nose to tip of his thumb.

Two yards or fathom is the measurement from fingertip to fingertip when your arms are stretched sideways as far as they will go.

However, using these units of measurement had a disadvantage. Discrepancies arose when the people started comparing their measurements to one another because measurements of the same thing differed, depending on who was measuring it. Because of these units of measurement are called non – standard units of measurement which later on evolved into what are now basic units of length in the English system of measurement.

Imagine you using these non – standard units of measurement to help Noah to build this ark.

Or be the engineer of Burj Khalifa – the tallest building on earth.

Or simply buy a new phone at the mall saying, “I want it to be, two palms long and one palm wide.” Isn’t it weird?

Let us all thank God, for in this earth the only constant is change. Nowadays, there are lots of tools available that we can use to help us measure things accurately. Man has always developed better methods for weighing and measuring things regardless of what period of time we examine.