human based units

[kengr]

There are a bunch of units based on the human body.

Finger: width of a finger, used for drinks mostly these days
Thumb: length of last joint of the thumb. about an inch
Hand: used for height of horses. 4 inches
Span: distance from tip of thumb to tip of little finger with them spread as far apart as possible. about 6 inches
Foot: length of foot
Cubit: from elbow to tip of index finger. 18 inches
Yard. from hand to tip of nose (think of pinching a bit of cloth or rope between thumb and forefinger and stretching out your arm and measure to your nose) 36 inches.
Ell: Same thing except to opposite shoulder about 45 inches
fathom: from one hand to the other with arms stretched. 6 feet
stride: distance between 2 footprints if you are walking normally
pace: 2 strides (distance between two footprints of the *same* foot when walking normally)
mile: originally 1000 paces.
league: 3 miles

Comments

[acelightning]

You forgot the Smoot

[warriorsavant]

Thank you.
Since moving to Canada, I use an irrational mix of metric and archaic. However, I rarely measure things in grains, gills, or furlongs.

[stickmaker]

I have read that ancient Egypt used two cubits, the common and the sacred or royal. The second was used for temples and tombs. Other cultures have used cubits which were different from either of these.

Then there's the pre-French revolution measurement of length, the toise. Or rather, there were several of them, and woe betide anyone who tried to get one region to change their traditional value, especially if that came from a rival region. (A complete change to an entirely new unit was probably easier.)

BTW, while Napoleon was a bit below average height, this was originally given in French feet and inches, which were slightly longer than the Imperial equivalents. So his shortness wasn't as extreme as many think.

The mile has also had different lengths in different places.

[kengr]

All of the units of length and weight (and many other things) varied from place to place.

One amusing example from England was when the foot was determind by averaging the length of the first 12(?) men out of Church on sunday.

This was abused a *lot*. When it was time to measure land to determine the taxes owed the Crown, the folks with long feet got shoved out first.

when it was time to measure for how max tax the people owed the local lord, it was the folks with the short feet that got shoved out.

[stickmaker]

Here's a report on some Inca measurements:

https://www.archaeology.org/news/9186-201103-inca-measurement-system

[kengr]

So the farmers used cubits and the elite used something else.