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Shaftment
The shaftment is an obsolete unit of length defined since the 12th century as 6 inches, which nowadays is exactly . A shaftment was traditionally the width of the fist and outstretched thumb. The lengths of poles, staves, etc. can be easily measured by grasping the bottom of the staff with thumb extended and repeating such hand over hand grips along the length of the staff. History It occurs in Anglo-Saxon written records as early as 910 and in English as late as 1474. After the modern foot came into use in the twelfth century, the shaftment was reinterpreted as exactly foot or . Spelling and etymology Other spellings include ''schaftmond'' and ''scaeftemunde'', and ''shathmont''. It is derived from Old English , in turn from ('shaft') and Old English , from the Proto-Germanic , in turn from ('hand'). Two shaftments make a . This unit has mostly fallen out of use, as have others based on the human arm: digit ( shaftment), finger ( shaftment), palm ( shaftment) hand ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hand Units Of Measurement
A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the Koala#Characteristics, koala (which has two thumb#Opposition and apposition, opposable thumbs on each "hand" and fingerprints extremely similar to human fingerprints) are often described as having "hands" instead of paws on their front limbs. The raccoon is usually described as having "hands" though opposable thumbs are lacking. Some evolutionary anatomists use the term ''hand'' to refer to the appendage of digits on the forelimb more generally—for example, in the context of whether the three Digit (anatomy), digits of the bird hand involved the same Homology (biology), homologous loss of two digits as in the dinosaur hand. The human hand usually has five digits: Finger numbering#Four-finger system, four fingers plus one thumb; however, these are often referred to collectively as Finger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inch
The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is equal to yard or of a foot (unit), foot. Derived from the Uncia (unit), Roman uncia ("twelfth"), the word ''inch'' is also sometimes used to translate similar units in other measurement systems, anthropic units, usually understood as deriving from the width of the human thumb. Standards for the exact length of an inch have varied in the past, but since the adoption of the international yard during the 1950s and 1960s the inch has been based on the metric system and defined as exactly 25.4Millimetre, mm. Name The English word "inch" () was an early borrowing from Latin ' ("one-twelfth; Roman inch; Roman ounce"). The vowel change from Latin to Old English (which became Modern English ) is known as Germanic umlaut, umlaut. The consonant c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foot (unit)
The foot (standard symbol: ft) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British imperial and United States customary units, United States customary systems of metrology, measurement. The prime (symbol), prime symbol, , is commonly used to represent the foot. In both customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches, and one yard comprises three feet. Since international yard and pound, an international agreement in 1959, the foot is defined as equal to exactly 0.3048 meters. Historically, the "foot" was a part of many local systems of units, including the Ancient Greek units of measurement, Greek, Ancient Roman units of measurement, Roman, Chinese units of measurement, Chinese, Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution, French, and English units, English systems. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city, and sometimes from trade to trade. Its length was usually between 250 mm and 335 mm and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Digit (unit)
The digit or finger is an ancient and obsolete non- SI unit of measurement of length. It was originally based on the breadth of a human finger. It was a fundamental unit of length in the Ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Roman systems of measurement. In astronomy a digit is one twelfth of the diameter of the sun or the moon. History Ancient Egypt The digit, also called a finger or fingerbreadth, is a unit of measurement originally based on the breadth of a human finger. In Ancient Egypt it was the basic unit of subdivision of the cubit. On surviving Ancient Egyptian cubit-rods, the royal cubit is divided into seven palms of four digits or fingers each. The royal cubit measured approximately 525 mm, so the length of the ancient Egyptian digit was about 19 mm. Mesopotamia In the classical Akkadian Empire system instituted in about 2250 BC during the reign of Naram-Sin, the finger was one-thirtieth of a cubit length. The cubit was equiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finger (unit)
A finger (sometimes fingerbreadth or finger's breadth) is any of several units of measurement that are approximately the width of an adult human finger. xactly which part of the finger should be used is not defined; the width at the base of fingernail (#6 in the sketch) is typically less than that at the knuckle (#5). The digit, also known as digitus or digitus transversus (Latin), dactyl (Greek) or dactylus, or finger's breadth of an inch or of a foot. (about 2 cm) In medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ... and related disciplines (anatomy, radiology, etc.) the fingerbreadth (literally the width of a finger) is an informal but widely used unit of measure. In the measurement of distilled spirits, a finger of whiskey refers to the amount of whiskey that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palm (unit)
The palm is an obsolete Anthropic units, anthropic units of measurement, unit of length, originally based on the width of the human palm and then variously standardized. The same name is also used for a second, rather larger unit based on the length of the human hand. The width of the palm was a traditional unit in ancient Egyptian units of measurement#Length, Ancient Egypt, ancient Hebrew units#Length, Israel, Ancient Greek units of measurement#Length, Greece, and Ancient Roman units of measurement#Length, Rome and in medieval English units of measurement, England, where it was also known as the hand,. handbreadth, or handsbreadth.. The length of the hand—originally the Ancient Roman units of measurement#Length, Roman "greater palm"—formed the palm of medieval traditional Italian units of measure#Length, Italy and Traditional French units of measurement, France. In Spanish customary units ' or ' was the palm, while ' was the span (unit of length), span, the distance between a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hand (unit)
The hand is a non-SI unit of measurement of length standardized to . It is used to measure the height of horses in many English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It was originally based on the breadth of a human hand. The adoption of the Inch#Equivalents, international inch in 1959 allowed for a standardized Imperial and US customary measurement systems#Units of length, imperial form and a Metric system, metric conversion. It may be abbreviated to "h" or "hh". Although measurements between whole hands are usually expressed in what appears to be decimal format, the subdivision of the hand is not decimal but is in radix, base 4, so subdivisions after the radix point are in quarters of a hand, which are inches. Thus, 62 inches is fifteen and a half hands, or 15.2 hh (normally said as "fifteen-two", or occasionally in full as "fifteen hands two inches"). Terminology "Hands" may be abbrevia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Span (length)
A span is the distance measured by a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger. In ancient times, a span was considered to be half a cubit. Sometimes the distinction is made between the great span or full span (thumb to little finger) and little span or short span (thumb to index finger, or index finger to little finger). History Ancient Greek texts show that the span was used as a fixed measure in ancient Greece since at least archaic period. The word ''spithame'' (Greek: "σπιθαμή"), "span", is attested in the work of Herodotus in the 5th century BC; however, the span was used in Greece long before that, since the word ''trispithamos'' (Greek: "τρισπίθαμος"), "three spans long", occurs as early as the 8th century BC in Hesiod. Hesiod, ''Works and Days'', 426, oPerseus Digital Library/ref> Size of the span English usage ; 1 span := 9 inches := 22.86 cm Chinese usage In China and Chinese cultured countries, a span (一拃) refers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cubit
The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, and Solomon's Temple. The ''common cubit'' was divided into 6 palm (unit), palms × 4 Finger (unit), fingers = 24 digit (unit), digits. ''Royal cubits'' added a palm for 7 palms × 4 fingers = 28 digits. These lengths typically ranged from , with an ancient Roman cubit being as long as . Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in ancient history, antiquity, during the Middle Ages and as recently as Early modern Europe, early modern times. The term is still used in hedgelaying, the length of the forearm being frequently used to determine the interval between stakes placed within the hedge. Etymology The English word "cubit" comes from the Latin language, Latin noun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ell (unit)
An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and survives in the modern English word "elbow" (arm-bend). Later usage through the 19th century refers to several longer units, some of which are thought to derive from a "double ell". An ell-wand or ellwand was a rod of length one ell used for official measurement. Edward I of England required that every town have one. In Scotland, the Belt of Orion was called "the King's Ellwand". An iron ellwand is preserved in the entrance to Stånga Church on the Swedish island of Gotland, indicating the role that rural churches had in disseminating uniform measures. Several national forms existed, with different lengths, including the Scottish ell , the Flemish ell l, the French ell une,Brayshaw, Tom S., ed. ''Brayshaw's Mathematical Desk Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Units Of Length
A unit of length refers to any arbitrarily chosen and accepted reference standard for measurement of length. The most common units in modern use are the metric system, metric units, used in every country globally. In the United States the U.S. customary units are also in use. British Imperial units are still used for some purposes in the United Kingdom and some other countries. The metric system is sub-divided into International System of Units, SI and non-SI units. History Metric system SI The SI base unit, base unit in the International System of Units (SI) is the meter, defined as "the length of the path travelled by speed of light, light in vacuum during a time interval of seconds." It is approximately equal to . Other SI units are derived from the meter by adding Metric prefix, prefixes, as in millimeter or kilometer, thus producing systematic decimal multiples and submultiples of the base unit that span many orders of magnitude. For example, a kilometer is . Non ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
