The Danes started with a system of units based on a Greek ''pous'' ("foot") of which they picked up through trade in the late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

/early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

. Some early standards of measure can be recovered from measured drawings made of the

Hjortspring boat The Hjortspring boat ( da, Hjortspringbåden) is a vessel designed as a large canoe, from the Scandinavian Pre-Roman Iron Age. It was built circa 400–300 BC. The hull and remains were rediscovered and excavated in 1921–1922 from the bog of ''H ...

, which though dating to the early Iron Age exemplifies plank-built vessels of the late Bronze Age and the

Nydam The Nydam Mose, also known as Nydam Bog, is an archaeological site located at Øster Sottrup, a town located in Sundeved, eight kilometres from Sønderborg, Denmark. History In the Iron Age, the site of the bog was a sacred place, where the wea ...

ship. Thwarts are typically spaced about 3 ''fod'' apart. King

Christian V of Denmark Christian V (15 April 1646 25 August 1699) was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699. Well-regarded by the common people, he was the first king anointed at Frederiksborg Castle chapel as absolute monarch since the decr ...

introduced an office to oversee weights and measures, a ''justervæsen''. This was first led by the royal mathematician Ole Rømer, who established a national system of weights and measures on May 1st, 1683. Rømer's system, which he updated in 1698, was based on the Rhine foot. Its definitions included the following: * the Danish mile as 24,000 Rhineland feet (i.e. 4 minutes of arc latitude) * the Danish pound (''pund'') as of the weight of a cubic Rhineland foot of water (499.7 g) * the Danish ell (''alen'') as 2 Rhineland feet (630 mm) Rømer also suggested a pendulum definition for the foot (although this would not be implemented until after his death), and invented an early temperature scale. The metric system was introduced in 1907.

Length

:''See also Danish rute (rod)'' * ''mil'' – Danish mile. Towards the end of the 17th century, Ole Rømer,

Gerardus Mercator Gerardus Mercator (; 5 March 1512 – 2 December 1594) was a 16th-century geographer, cosmographer and Cartography, cartographer from the County of Flanders. He is most renowned for creating the Mercator 1569 world map, 1569 world map based on ...

and other contemporaries of the great Dutch cartographer Thisus began following

Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importa ...

in connecting the mile to the great circle of the earth, and Roemer defined it as 12,000 ''alen''. This definition was adopted in 1816 as the Prussian ''Meile''. The coordinated definition from 1835 was 7.532 km. Earlier, there were many variants, the most commonplace the ''

Sjælland Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020. It is the 1 ...

sk miil'' of 17,600 ''alen'' or 11.13 km (6.92 mi). * ''palme'' –

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

, for circumference, 8.86 cm (3.49 in) * ''alen'' – ell, 2 ''fod'' * ''fod'' – foot, about 313.85 mm (12.356 inches) in most recent usage. Defined as a ''Rheinfuss'' 314.07 mm (12.365 inches) from 1683, before that 314.1 mm (12.366 in) with variations. * ''rut'' – 5026 mm, 16 fod. * ''kvarter'' – quarter, ''alen'' * ''tomme'' – thumb ( inch), ''fod'' * ''linie'' – line, ''tomme'' * ''skrupel'' – scruple, ''linie''

Area

* ''tønde land'' – Barrel of land, 8 ''skæpper land''

Volume

* ''potte'' – pot, from 1683 cubic ''fod'', about in 19th and 20th centuries * ''smørtønde'' – barrel of butter, from 1683, 136 ''potter'' * ''korntønde'' – barrel of corn (grain), from 1683 144 ''potter''

Weight

* ''pund'' – pound, from 1683 the weight of cubic ''fod'' of water, 499.75 g (1.1 lb)

Miscellaneous

* ''dusin'' – dozen, 12 * ''snes'' – score, 20 * ''skok'' – 60 * ''ol'' – 4 , 80 * ''gros'' – gross, 144

Length

Area

Volume

Weight

Miscellaneous

References

See also