The unconventional measures are those that are carried out without using the standards accepted by most people, that is, the standard measurement standards.
Human beings have always had the need to carry out measures of all kinds, to exchange goods, delimit land, build buildings and manufacture various objects. And for this it is necessary to make measurements, which in many cases must be careful and precise..
For example, the meter (m) is the most used standard to measure lengths, but before it was accepted by everyone, there were other ways of measuring, all of them based on the human body, for example inches, elbows, feet, the span and many more.
These patterns have the advantage of being able to carry them everywhere. Also, in many everyday situations, it is not necessary to have an exact measurement, but a good approximation is enough to achieve the purpose..
On the other hand, the obvious disadvantage of measuring with parts of the body, such as the inch, is that there will always be differences depending on the size of the finger of the person doing the measurement..
However, people continue to carry out unconventional measures whenever they need a reasonable approximation of some magnitude, and so do those who live in remote communities and still maintain many of their ancestral customs..
There are several ways to measure lengths with body parts, depending on the size you want to measure. The drawback is the variability of size in people, however, they are measurements that provide good approximations when much precision is not needed..
The best known are briefly described below:
It is an appropriate pattern for short lengths, which makes use of the first phalanx of the thumb to complete the desired measurement. That's where his name comes from.
Almost all the peoples of the world have used it, with slight variations. Currently the inch is still used in the United States, with an accepted value of 2.54 cm.
Other values of the inch that were in use in the past are the Roman inch 2.46 cm and the Spanish: 2.32 cm
This is the name of the length between the elbow and the end of the open hand, or between the elbow and the closed fist..
Many ancient peoples used the elbow, although of course there is a lot of variability in this measure. The ancient Egyptian builders tried to establish a standard of measurement, thus came the Egyptian short cubit and royal cubit:
The four fingers of the right or left hand, not including the thumb, are brought together and placed on the object to be measured. It is common to use this measure to indicate how much you want to trim the hair or adapt the hems of the garments.
Also called a fourth, it uses the palm of the extended hand, very suitable for medium-sized objects, such as sheets of paper, books, notebooks or tables.
It is the distance that is covered with the arms fully extended and the fists closed.
This pattern consists of the size of the foot of the person who measures, from the heel to the tip of the big toe, determines the measured length. The Anglo-Saxon system of measurements still uses the foot, setting its length at 12 inches.
Use the width of your stride to estimate distances from one point to another. It is used to measure greater lengths, for example the distance between two trees, or between the door of the house and the kiosk that sells sweets.
This well-known measurement is based on the distance between the elbows when extending the arms and crossing the hands on the chest. In some texts the equivalence with feet and elbows appears: 1 rod equals 3 feet or 2 cubits.
It is the estimated distance that can be covered by walking in an hour, an idea that surely arose from the need to know the distances between towns and thus estimate the time to come and go, in the times when most people made these routes. walking.
Before the decimal metric system was established with the gram-force (or simply gram) as the central unit of weight, two-pan balances were used..
In one of the saucers the object whose weight was to be ascertained was placed and in the other an object whose weight served as a reference. It was a good method to compare objects up to medium size.
People can also compare the weight of two objects, holding them in the palm of their hands, as if these were the pans of the balance, in this way they can indicate which is the heaviest.
Some unconventional measures of weight that can be applied with the parts of the body and by using small objects such as seeds and grains are:
It is the portion of some non-liquid substance, which can be taken between the thumb and forefinger.
Similar to the finger, it is the amount of material that a person is able to cover with his arms.
This measure makes use of cereal grains, usually wheat. Currently a grain is set at 64.8 milligrams and is appropriate for measuring small amounts.
In ancient times, to avoid conflicts when buying or exchanging, the local authorities had official standards, with which the other pesos could be compared if someone had doubts about the good faith of the other.
They are applied to liquids, using a container that serves as a standard, for example a cup. With the contents of the cup you can fill larger containers, such as bottles and jars and know how many cups they hold. This is the capacity of the container and the method of doing it is called transferring..
Historically, vessels with certain measures have been used to commercialize wine, olive oil, essences and other important liquids.
Archaeologists have found vessels with wine residues, between 30 and 70 liters in capacity, dating from the 5th millennium BC, in the Zagros Mountains, currently Iraq and Iran..
A barrel can also be an unconventional way of measuring capacity. For crude oil, this pattern is currently maintained, which is equivalent to 42 gallons or 159 liters..
It happens that until well into the nineteenth century, in the United States different types of food used to be kept in barrels whose capacity was 42 gallons, a measure that had its origin in medieval England and that ended up becoming a standard of legal use in the United States. transactions, including in the colonies.
When large-scale crude extraction began and production skyrocketed, producers had no choice but to use the 42-gallon containers, which were closer to hand, to quickly store and market the product. Since then the 42 gallon keg became the standard and has remained until now.
Time is not a tangible magnitude, therefore it is measured by comparing it with another event that has regularity, such as sunrise and sunset..
Then the time interval in which there is sunlight is subdivided according to the position that the Sun occupies in the sky, for example when the Sun rises in the morning it can be the first hour, at noon the sixth hour and so on..
In this way, the day can be divided into morning, afternoon and night. The downside is that the number of daytime hours changes depending on the time of year and location..
A rudimentary sundial can be made by nailing a post into flat ground and observing the evolution of the shadow throughout the day. One hour equals 15º. For a long time people only had these watches, and they came to build them very carefully to achieve great precision.
Another way to measure shorter time intervals is by using a candle, a time pattern can be set as the interval when the candle is completely consumed, but a single candle size must be set..
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