During the days where church and kings were above science, everything works with their opinion. That is the way they go “permanent” into history. You have read Story behind U.S. standard railroad gauge. There are some more of them, how measurement of units originated
In ancient times, the body ruled when it came to measuring. The length of a foot, the width of a finger, and the distance of a step were all accepted measurements.
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.
Foot: In ancient times, the foot was 111/42 inches. Today it is 12 inches, the length of the average man’s foot.
Yard: A yard was originally the length of a man’s belt or girdle, as it was called. 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. Today it is 36 inches.
Cubit: In ancient Egypt, a cubit was the distance from the elbow to the fingertips. Today a cubit is about 18 inches.
Lick: A Lick was used by the Greeks to measure the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the index finger.
These are all fine, at least they are defined. Some of them change depending on king’s mood. I got an interesting mail, did not try it. Those who are UNIX fans try it and tell me. I have no difficulty to believe this at all, very much possible
Have u ever seen the calendar for September 1752???
If you are working in Unix, try this out. At $ prompt, type: cal 9 1752 See the explanation for what you see.
Isn’t the output queer? A month with whole of eleven days missing. This was the time England shifted from Roman Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, and the king of England ordered those 11 days to be wiped off the face of the month of September of 1752. (What couldn’t a King do in those days?!) And yes, the workers worked for 11 days less, but got paid for the entire 30 days. And that’s how “Paid Leave” was born. Hail the King!!!
Technorati Tags: King, Europe, measurement, standards, foot, inch, paid, leave, calendar,
Lick – thats ‘gENu’ in kannaDa
I still can see people using that for measurements in rural area
And
Cubit – is ‘moLa’ in Kannada.
It is still in use in floral market.
Prashanth, I thought geNu was used for foot. Thanks for the correction
Hi Bach,
all my family, relatives and neigbours know me by a name sajeel. Only my classmates,collegemates & collegues know me by ghouse.
my mom, aunt & grandpa used call me by my pet names sajju,sanju..
It gives me lot of pleasure when they cal me by that name. that why thought of rediscovering myself from this name.
and as u kno stubborn is wht i am.
Nice blog!
all i know about this calender issue is that there was some serious problem with julian calender which had wron number of days per month and per year. hence the equinox and solstices were shifting off from their dates, something like summer coming in december and winter in march. so they sifted off to a 365 days calender which they called gregorian calender which is very close to indian calender year(which was followed since thousands of years)
Interesting facts…
@Prashanth,
“Genu”… Yeah… Have heard of it. But don’t know how much it is.
@Srikanth,
“moLa”, familiar one, how different is it from “maru”. I have blogrolled you.
@Ghouse,
Welcome to blogosphear.
@Laluttefinale
Thank you.
@Kaushik,
Wonderful information, where did you learn this? Google?
@Vijay,
Sure they are …
wow thats interesting
Pegasus,
Thanks dude. Welcome to “the bach”. You are now subscribed as “friends”(earlier your blog was in “humor” category. Nice blog you have.
so the joker is promoted to a friend