A number of
units of measurement
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multi ...
were used in Nicaragua to measure measurements in mass, area, volume, etc. In Nicaragua, the
metric system
The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the Interna ...
was adopted in 1910, and has been compulsory since 1912, by a joint convention between
Costa Rica,
Guatemala,
Honduras,
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
and
El Salvador.
Pre-metric units
Before the metric system, a number of modified Spanish (i.e. Spanish Castilian
), English and local units were used.
Mass
Several units were used to measure mass in the above five countries. Some of these units are given below:
1 caja = 16 kg
1
fanega
The fanega or Spanish bushel was an old measure of dry capacity in Spanish-speaking countries. It was generally used in an agricultural context to measure quantities of grain. The measure varied greatly, but in Castile, it was equivalent to ...
= 92 kg
1 carga = 161 kg
Area
Several units were used to measure area in these countries. One
manzana was equal to 10,000 square varas or 6987.4 m
2.
(A vara was an obsolete Spanish unit of length equal to 0.8359 m.) One caballeria was equal to 64 manzanas.
Volume
Several units were used to measure volume in these countries. One botella was equal to 0.63 to 0.67 litres.
One cajuela was equal to 16.6 litres.
However the capacity of one cuartillo is very variable.
References
{{Systems of measurement
Nicaraguan culture
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...