HISTORY OF MEASUREMENT

HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN? It was the Greeks who developed the "foot" as their fundamental unit of length. Legend has it that this Greek unit was based on an actual measurement of Hercules' foot.

People measured a yard of cloth by the distance between the end of the outstretched arm and their chin. In the 12th century, King Henry I of England fixed the yard as the distance from his nose to the thumb of his out-stretched arm

The Romans measured their pace steps, of about 2.5 feet, 1000 double paces formed a mile.

Hand widths were used to measure the height of things

INCH At first an inch was the width of a man's thumb. In the 14th century, King Edward II of England ruled that 1 inch equaled 3 grains of barley placed end to end lengthwise.

CUBIT In ancient Egypt, a cubit was the distance from the elbow to the fingertips.

It was Fifth graders who developed the fundamental units of lenght. FOOT w as based on the actual measurement of Gerardo's foot. CUBIT: was the distance from Diego´s elbow to his fingertips. INCH was the width of a Carmenza's thumb. YARD was the distance from Claudia´s nose to the thumb of her out-stretched arm. HANDS: Alexandra´s hand width

How many hands tall is your Chair? How many cubits long is your sweater? How many feet is your board? How many inches is your pencil? How many hands is your computer? How many cubits long is the window? How many feet is from your place to the board?

It was evident that everyone's body was different sizes. This caused confusion in measurement.

The French created a standard unit of measurement called the metric system in This is today's international system of unit for measurement.

HOW DOES THE METRIC SYSTEM WORK? NO LONGER MUST YOU REMEMBER THE RELATIONSHIPS SUCH AS: 12 inches to a foot or 3 feet to a yard THINK OF THE METRIC SYSTEM IN TERMS OF TEN. Changing one unit to another for a given measurement means moving the decimal point.

THE POINT OF THE DECIMAL The metric system uses prefixes to indicate units larger or smaller than a given base unit. Each prefix is a multiple of 10.

USING UNITS "METER" FOR MEASURING LENGTH 1. Centimeter (cm). A finger is about 1 cm wide. Example

2. Millimeter (mm). 1 centimeter=10 millimeters Example The length of a paper clip is 30 mm. The width of a paper clip is 8 mm. 3. Meter (m). 1 meter=100 centimeters. Examples The height of the doorknob to the floor is 1 m

Kilometer (km). 1 kilometer=1,000 meters. Example

Try These : 1. A width of a computer floppy disk is ______ cm. 2. A length of a computer floppy disk is ______ cm. 3. The length of a piece of notebook paper is _____ cm 4. The width of a piece of notebook paper is _____ cm 5. Length of you pencil __________ 6. Distance between the board and the first table ________ 7. Height of an ant _________ 8. width of a window _______

Volume Fluid ounce - The fluid ounce is used to measure volume. There is also a unit called the ounce which is used for measuring mass. In the US, there are 8 fluid ounces in a cup. There are 12 fluid ounces in your average can of soda. Cup - A cup is a medium sized unit of measure often used for measuring cooking ingredients. The US cup is defined as half a US pint. There are 8 cups in a quart and 16 cups in a gallon. There is also a metric cup. One US cup equals metric cups. Pint - A pint is another medium size unit of measure for volume. There are 2 cups in a pint. Quart - A quart is used for slightly larger items. There are 4 cups in a quart and 4 quarts in a gallon. Gallon - Gallons are used for measuring larger volumes like gas for your car. There are 4 quarts and 16 cups in a gallon. There are liters in a gallon. Liter - The liter is the basic unit of volume for the metric system. There are liters in a gallon. For small volumes the milliliter is used. There are 1000 milliliters in a liter.

Weight and Mass Ounce - The ounce is used for measuring small quantities of mass. Compared to the metric system, there are grams in a US ounce. It is abbreviated "oz." There are 16 ounces in a pound. Pound - The pound is used for measuring the mass of medium to large objects such as a person. It is often abbreviated as lb. or lbs. for plural. Ton - The ton is used for really large objects. A ton in the United States is 2,000 pounds. There is also the metric tonne (spelled differently) that equals 1,000 kilograms. Gram - The gram is the basic metric unit of measurement for mass. For small measurements the milligram is used and for large measurements the kilogram is used. There are grams in a US ounce

Length and Distance Inch - The inch (or inches for plural) is a small unit of length. Twelve inches make up a foot. Compared to the metric system an inch equals 2.54 centimeters. Inches are used for smaller lengths such as measuring the length of a pencil or the width of an eraser. Foot - A foot is a unit of length. There are 12 inches in a foot and 3 feet in a yard. Compared to the metric system a foot equals meters. Feet are used to measure medium size lengths such as the height of a person or the width of a room. Yard - The yard is a unit of length used for medium size distances like the length of a football field. There are 3 feet in a yard. In the metric system 1 yard is meters. Mile - The mile is used for long lengths like the distance between two cities. There are 5,280 feet in a mile. There are around 1.6 kilometers in a mile. Meter - The metric system uses the meter as its basic unit of length. For very small lengths a millimeter is used which is 1000th of a meter. Kilometer - The kilometer is used for long distances in the metric system. There are 1000 meters in a kilometer.

Temperature Degrees - Degrees are used to measure the temperature or the hotness or coldness of an object. There are two main standard scales of degrees used including the Fahrenheit scale and the Celsius scale

Time Second - The second is the smallest standard unit of time. Smaller units of time are based on the second such as the nanosecond or the microsecond. There are 60 seconds in a minute. Seconds are used to measure events of short duration like the 100 meter dash. Minute - The minute is a measurement of time. There are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. Hour - The hour is a medium length unit of time. There are 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day. Hours are used to measure durations such as the length of the school day or how long you sleep at night. Day/Week/Month/Year - For longer durations we can use days, weeks, months, and years.