Means of Measuring

digitS'

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so lucky

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Wow, many of those I haven't seen before. Does this chart tell what region or era those were used in?
 

ducks4you

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I Think the foot was gauged from an English King, maybe Henry VIII, but I won't swear on it. 1 mile is an ancient measure from the ancient Romans.
"It originated in the Roman mille passuum, a thousand paces, or more precisely, a thousand strides. Each pace consisted of five Roman feet, giving us a mile of 5,000 feet. Since the Roman foot (the pes) was smaller than today’s foot, the Roman mile was about nine-tenths the length of our mile. "
Since the Tudors lengthened these measurements and created the modern day "foot", a mile --
"Unfortunately, the English also had the idea, for reasons we needn’t go into here, that a mile consisted of eight furlongs. The furlong, short for “furrow-long,” is said to have been the distance a horse could pull a plow before having to rest. Its length was a matter of confusion for quite a spell, but by the 16th century folks generally agreed that it consisted of 40 rods of 16-1/2 feet each, or 660 feet in all — and of course eight furlongs was 5,280 feet. "
 

Pulsegleaner

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Ah Yes, one carat=one carob seed. (for those without access to carob seeds, seeds of their close cousin the honey locust work just as well)

There's a similar Indian unit of measure based on the weight of one rosary pea.
 

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