English units of measure. English (American) units of measurement Weight in england is measured

When I was in America, one of the difficulties for me was an unusual system of measures. Of course, I knew that in the USA, as in Great Britain, they use not the usual meters, liters, kilograms, but incomprehensible feet, inches, gallons. But I underestimated how often we come across units of measurement in our everyday life. In this article, I will provide the most important practical information about units of measurement.

Most important because complete information is of little use. In the English system of measures, there are many units that are mentioned in literature, documents, but practically do not occur in everyday life. You can read more about webs, centrals, slugs, and hands on Wikipedia. Here I wrote about what is useful in life, this is not an encyclopedic article, but a practical guide.

What is English Measurement System?

The world uses the English (imperial) system of measures (Imperial system) and metric (metric system).

The English system of measures is used in the UK (since 1995, the metric system has been used as the official one), the USA, Myanmar and Liberia. These four countries speak the language of inches and pounds. The rest of the world is in the language of meters and kilograms. Do not be fooled by the fact that in American films in Russian translation the characters speak in meters and liters - in the cinema they usually convert units of measurement for ease of perception (they often leave them in books).

The most noticeable difference to the English system is that units of measurement, for example, weight, do not correlate with each other as millimeters, centimeters, meters and kilometers, that is, 1 in 100 or 1000. For example, 1 pound = 16 ounces, and 1 ton = 2000 pounds. Historically, this difference is often highlighted in various jokes about the English system.

Measures of length: inches, feet, yards, miles - how much is it in (centi-) meters?

A person's height is measured in feet and inches. For example, when they say “he is six and five,” they mean “he is six feet, five inches” (195 cm). Inches, feet, and yards are used when talking about the size of various items. When talking about distance, they use miles.

Note: the word foot is non-standard: 1 foot - 10 feet.

Measures of weight: ounces, pounds, stones and tons - how much to weigh in grams?

Weighing measures are used in stores when weighing. On the price tags, they also usually write the price per pound, as in our stores the price per kilogram. Body weight is measured in pounds (US) or pounds and stones (UK).

Also, problems will arise if you go to a gym in America: the weights will be signed in pounds. In Russia, in some financial clubs, you can also see exercise machines with unusual weights: 22.5 kg - 36 kg - 45.5 kg. Moreover, it is written on glued pieces of paper. This is the result of the "Russification" of foreign equipment.

Note: Note that pound is abbreviated as lb - from the Latin libra - scales.

Measures of liquids: a pint of beer - how much is it in liters?

Measures of liquids are found on the packaging of goods: water, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages (degrees, by the way, are denoted in the same way as we do). Gasoline is counted in gallons at filling stations.

Ounces (oz) and gallons (gl) are most commonly found on product labels. For example, beer in small bottles is usually 12 ounces (29.5 ml), in large bottles it is 40 ounces (1182.9 ml). Coca-Cola cans - 7.5 (198 ml) or 12 oz (29.5 ml). Milk is usually sold in 1 gallon (3.78 L) bottles. Cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons are used in recipes.

We should also mention the barrel (barrel in English. "Barrel"). There are several varieties of barrel. The table shows the American barrel for liquids(fluid barrel) equal to 31.5 gallons or 117.3 liters. The barrel we hear about on the news is oil barrel, a unit of measure for the volume of oil (oil barrel, abbreviated: bbl), it is equal to 42 gallons or 158.988 liters.

Bulk measures: dry gallons, pints, pecks, bushels

Units of measurement for bulk solids are not common in everyday life, but I also decided to mention them, because you need to know that there are “dry” pints, quarts, gallons and “liquid”. For the most part, these measures are used in agriculture.

Bulk bodies include not only cereals, sugar, but also berries and fruits. Grapes or apples in agriculture may well be measured (and sold) in dry pints, quarts, or even pitch, bushels for high volume.

Before all words, except peck and bushel, you can add “dry” if you need to clarify that we are talking about “dry” pints, gallons, etc. Peck and bushel cannot be “dry”.

Fahrenheit temperature

In the UK, temperatures are measured in Celsius, like ours, and in the USA, in Fahrenheit. When I arrived in the USA, at first I was not told anything by these “80 degrees” in the weather forecast or conversation.

There is an “easy” way to convert temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius and vice versa:

• Fahrenheit - Celsius: subtract 32 from the original number, multiply by 5, divide by 9.
• Celsius - Fahrenheit: multiply the original number by 9, divide by 5, add 32.

Of course, I have never used it, just over time I got used to the fact that 70 is warm, 80 is hot, and more than 90 is hellish heat. For purely practical purposes, I have put together a table for you to clearly explain the temperature in Fahrenheit.

Note: The epigraph of R. Bradbury's novel "451 degrees Fahrenheit" says that at a temperature of 451 degrees Fahrenheit, paper ignites. This is a bug, in fact, the paper catches fire at around 450 degrees Celsius.

Speed ​​in miles per hour

If you are driving, you will have to get used to not only the distance in miles, but also the speed in miles per hour. Converting miles per hour to kilometers per hour is much easier than converting Fahrenheit to Celsius: you just need to multiply the speed in miles per hour by 1.609344. If it's rough, then just multiply by one and a half times.

In this table, I've provided a speed comparison so you can get an idea of ​​what speed is in miles per hour.

Household units of measure: box of chocolates, box of flour, glass of water, etc.

In addition to the real official units of measurement in colloquial speech, “household” measures are actively used: a can of beer, a bottle of water, a box of tangerines, a piece of sausage, etc. Here are some of these words. Please note that sometimes they are used figuratively (a grain of truth - a grain of truth, a grain of truth).

• a bar of
  • chocolate - chocolate bar
  • soap - a bar of soap
  • gold - ingot of gold
• a box of
  • cereal - box of cereal
  • chocolat (chocolates) - box of chocolates

• a pile of
  • paper - a bunch of papers
  • trash - a lot of garbage
• a glass of
  • water, wine etc - a glass of wine, water, etc.
• a drop of
  • oil, blood, water - a drop of oil, blood, water, etc.
• a piece of
  • cake - a piece of cake
  • furniture - a piece of furniture
  • advice - advice (singular)
  • luggage - a piece of luggage (e.g. one suitcase)
• a carton of
  • ice cream - packaging (box) of ice cream
  • milk - box of milk
  • juice - a box of juice
  • cigarettes - block of cigarettes
• a crate of
  • oysters - box of shrimp
  • coconuts - a box of coconuts
• a bowl of
  • cereal - a cup of cereal
  • rice - a bowl of rice
  • soup - a cup of soup
• a grain of
  • rice - a grain of rice (one rice grain)
  • sand - grain of sand
  • truth - grain of truth
• a bottle of
  • water - water
  • wine - wine
• a slice of
  • bread - a slice of bread
  • meat - a piece of meat
  • cheese - a piece of cheese
• a bag of
  • sugar - a bag of sugar
  • flour - a bag of flour
• a pack of
  • cigarettes - a pack of cigarettes
  • cards - deck of cards (UK), deck \ set of cards - US
• a roll of
  • tape - a roll of film
  • toilet paper - roll of toilet paper
• a handful of
  • dust - a handful of dust
  • salt - a handful of salt
• a pinch of
  • salt - a pinch of salt
  • pepper - a pinch of pepper

Notes:

• Disposable plastic cups are foam cups, not foam glasses, or usually just cups. Foam glass is foam glass (sturdy material).
• Packages in stores are bags rather than packs.
• Box- this is usually a small cardboard box (a box of cereals, chocolates), crate- a box (eg a wooden box with fruit).
• Slice Is a piece cut off with a knife.
• Cup Is a cup for drinks (tea, coffee), and bowl- a cup for food.
• Advice- an uncountable noun, like information or knowledge. Speaking about a separate single piece of advice, use the expression “a piece of advice”.

Is it difficult to get used to English units of measurement?

When I arrived in the US on the program, I already spoke fairly tolerable English. I had no problems when I spoke with the employer - he was even surprised at my knowledge of the language. But when I was undergoing a medical examination, the doctor asked me three simple questions, and I could not answer any of them. She asked me what my height, weight and eye color was. And then I realized that I have no idea what my height and weight according to the American system is. As for the eyes (brown), I wanted to say that it was hazel, but doubted - and for good reason, brown eyes (in my case) are brown in English, and hazel eyes are light brown, closer to green.

This is what hazel eyes look like

Later it turned out that we are faced with measures of measurement at every step. Before, I just never paid attention to it. At first, I tried to roughly translate American units into ours in my mind: I counted a pound as a pound, and a mile as a kilometer and a half. As for the temperature, I remembered that 80 degrees is hot, and 100 is hellish heat (this happens in New Orleans).

This approach is fine if you are visiting the United States for a few days, but if you live there for a long time, work, communicate with locals, then it is better not to suffer with conversion, but just get used to counting apples as pounds, distance as miles, and height in feet and inches. ... The fastest way to turn off the “internal converter” is in the most essential - currency.

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A Few Facts About British Imperial and American Weights and Measures

Many have heard that there are British imperial and American systems of measures and weights. Do you know how they differ? These two systems are closely related, they both originated from the English system, which, in turn, is also based on the system of measures of Ancient Rome. The American and British systems of measures are so close that they are often confused. And it is not surprising, given that often in these systems the names of the units coincide, although their meanings may differ.

Unit history

The units of measurement that are used today in the United States and partly in Great Britain became widespread during the Norman conquests. The yard is the only unit that has remained virtually unchanged from those times. The yard replaced the previously used elbow (ell). Chain is another measure that came from old Angia that has hardly changed. On the other hand, the foot in use today has changed from the original foot. Today the rod is 16.5 feet, but originally there were exactly 15. Furlong and acre have not changed much in the last thousand years. They were originally a measure of the value of land, but later became simply units of area.

Confusion with British pounds

Differences between the British and American systems

Probably the most unusual are the units of volume. A US liquid gallon is 0.83 British gallons and a US dry gallon is 0.97 British gallons. In the UK, the gallon is the same for liquid and bulk solids.

US independence

After the US Declaration of Independence, America seceded and developed its own system of weights and measures. That is why today the values ​​of American and British gallons, pounds, yards differ. Ultimately, the governments of the two countries decided to work together and introduce precise definitions of yard and foot, based on copies of the official standards that the British Parliament adopted in 1850. True, I had to admit that these "official" standards were not of very high quality and could not provide the accuracy required in the modern world. Therefore, in 1960, the two governments officially redefined pounds and yards based on the metric standards. And although the changes in 1960 were very small in magnitude, their consequence was the emergence of two parallel standards for measures of length in the United States - land surveying measures (old standard) and international measures (new, tied to metric units).

Differences between US and UK units are often the subject of discussion and jokes among tourists. For example, in England beer is sold in pints, while a British pint is larger than a US pint. This spawns endless jokes about Americans unable to calculate their drinking and Brits who always have too high prices per gallon of gasoline.

What are the other differences in units?

Until 1960, the British yard and pound did not differ significantly from their American counterparts, at least for everyday use - measuring small distances or selling, for example, products. But there were some differences, even in this common use. For example, in the United States, short distances are usually denoted in feet, and in England, in yards.

It’s hard to believe, but people are still alive who grew up among a different system of measurement and other units. In the old imperial system, there was a stone unit equal to 14 pounds. Eight stones were a hundredweight, and a ton was equal to 20 centners or 2240 pounds. There are no stones in the American system, and the centner in it is equal to 100 pounds. Accordingly, a ton is obtained equal to 2000 pounds. The round value of 2000 is easier to remember than 2240, but the existence of two different options for tons and centners leads to confusion, especially in international trade. To make it easier for people in different countries to understand the difference when talking about a ton, the British ton is often called long ton, and the American ton is called short ton. And then there's the metric tonne!

If you think the modern system is too confusing, think of those who lived in the 19th century. Thomas Jefferson, in his "Plan for the Establishment of Uniform Standards for Coins, Weights and Measures," noted that there were 14 different definitions of the gallon in the United States alone. The smallest of the gallons contained 224 cubic inches and the largest contained 282 cubic inches. The difference is more than a quarter! Ultimately, the Queen Anne gallon was chosen as the official one.

To facilitate international oil trade, a unit of measurement was chosen - a barrel. One barrel equals 159 liters or 42 US gallons. Precious metals are traded in troy ounces, one troy ounce equals 31.10 grams.

Ultimately, the whole world will probably come to a single system of measurements. Most likely, it will be the metric system. But so far we still live in a world where a wild mixture of systems and units coexists, including units that have the same name, but with different meanings. Isn't our world a little crazy?

Regions that do not use the metric system as the main one are marked in red. Not many countries, right?

The most difficult thing when moving to America, most immigrants consider the transition to a different system of measurements: instead of the usual meters, degrees Celsius and kilograms, a completely new world falls on people, in which all the usual realities are measured completely, from their point of view, illogical.

But one bike says that the United States actually had the opportunity to live according to the metric system, but they were prevented from doing this ... by the British pirates!

This story was published by the Washington Post newspaper, along the way lamenting that Americans still have the opportunity to "change their minds" and switch to a "more understandable, simple and logical" metric system - or, as it is now called - the International System of Units (fr. Le Systeme International d'Unites, SI).

However, we are talking about the times when the Parisian scientists decided for the first time to bring all units of measurement with a single system. To this end, they invited the American Congress to come to a general agreement. At the time, Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State, who welcomed the unification of the measurement system. So in 1793, a ship was sent from Paris towards America, on which the botanist and aristocrat Joseph Dombey was carrying two metric standards: a rod exactly one meter long and a copper cylinder weighing exactly one kilogram.

Unfortunately, on the way across the Atlantic, the ship with Dombey on board was caught in a storm, and they were eventually brought by the current into the Caribbean Sea - right into the hands of the local pirates. In fact, the pirates did not consider themselves as such: they were British subjects, who were given permission by the Queen herself to attack any non-British ships. But in essence, they were still piracy. So the French crew, along with the academician, were imprisoned (Joseph Dombey did not last long in captivity and soon died), and all the property found on the ship, including the standards, was sold at auction.

US copy of the 1 kg standard.

But this is of course just a bike ...

It is believed that the SI system was never approved in the United States. She is so imperceptible in this country that a person who does not go into details can get such an impression. But it is absolutely not true! A number of acts have been passed establishing it as the official system of weights and measures of the United States. How, then, did it happen that Americans still use ancient units of measurement? The fact is that all adopted acts are advisory (and not mandatory) for private business and ordinary residents of the country. This means that every American has the right to measure with the usual inches and weigh in pounds familiar from childhood. And this right is enjoyed not only by people, but also by giant corporations.

There are only three countries in the world that have not yet switched to the SI system. These are the USA, Liberia and Myanmar (until 1989 - Burma). The rest of the peoples of the world either switched to the metric system completely, or at least officially adopted it as a standard. Another thing is how things are among the people. In Russia even now they can call a kilometer a “mile” in conversation, but at the same time everyone clearly understands that we are talking about the most ordinary metric kilometer, and not about the old Russian mile.

But in the United States, the old folk system of measures and weights is used not only in everyday life. Football fields are measured in yards. Work done by car engines in outlandish foot-pounds. Atmospheric pressure is in pounds per square inch.

The United States uses the U.S. instead of the SI system. Customary System It includes more than three hundred units of measurement of various physical quantities. The difficulty lies in the fact that many of these units of measurement are named the same, but mean completely different things.

Here is the simplest and most understandable for everyone, even those who are very far from engineering wisdom. It would seem, what can be difficult in a ton? This is a thousand kilograms and nothing else! But in the US, there are at least nine definitions of ton: short ton, displacement ton, refrigeration ton, nuclear ton, freight ton , register ton, metric ton, assay ton, fuel ton or ton of coal equivalent.

And despite all these obvious difficulties, neither in business nor in everyday life in the United States is a simple, understandable and unambiguous metric system used. The reasons for this lie, as is often the case, in the history of this country.

At first, the attitude of the United States to the metric system was determined by its relationship with France.

In the colonies of Britain, the British Imperial System was used. At the end of the 18th century, the metric system was developed in France. Which, of course, was not accepted by either Britain itself or its colonies.

When the United States gained independence, attempts were made in the country to streamline the measurement system. But they rested, as is often the case, in the financial issue. Thomas Jefferson, who served as US Secretary of State under George Washington, favored the decimal system. But it turned out that it would be impossible to determine the metric units of length without sending a delegation to France. And that was a costly affair.

Relations with France, which had supported the United States in its struggle for independence, entered a cooling stage after 1795. When in 1798 France invited representatives of various countries to familiarize themselves with the metric system, Americans were faced with disdain for themselves.

And, nevertheless, representatives of the United States visited Paris and were delighted with the metric system. But the likelihood of convincing the country's leaders of the need to switch to a new system of weights and measures coming from France was very weak. In 1821, US Secretary of State John Quincy studied the units of measurement of 22 states in the country and concluded that the U.S. The Customary System is fairly unified and does not need to be changed.

Napoleon reigned in France, and the Americans had doubts that the French themselves would remain faithful to the system of measures and weights they had created. As a result, consideration of the metric system in the United States at this historical stage was discontinued. But this does not mean that they did not return to it again and again as the SI system gained more and more recognition in the most different parts of our vast world.

In 1865, the American Civil War ended. The Americans looked around and found that most European countries had switched to the decimal metric system. And this obvious fact in the United States could no longer be ignored. In 1866, the country's Congress passed an act, according to which the metric system became official for use in all contracts, transactions and lawsuits.

Nine years later, France brought together representatives of the world's leading countries to discuss the details of a new international version of the metric system. The United States received an invitation and sent a delegation. The representatives of these countries signed an international convention, founding the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and the International Committee for Weights and Measures, whose tasks were to consider and adopt changes.

The agreement provided for the creation of a special hall in the French city of Serve near Paris, where the standards of metric standards, in particular the standard of the meter, were to be placed. This made it possible to avoid difficulties in understanding by different peoples what exactly is meant by a particular unit of measurement.

In 1890, the United States received copies of the international standard for the meter and the international standard for the kilogram. By the Mendenhall Ordinance (named for the Superintendent of Weights and Measures), metric units were adopted as the fundamental standard for length and mass in the United States. The yard was defined as 3600/3937 meters, and the pound as 0.4535924277 kilograms.

In 1959, English-speaking countries made some adjustments: 1 yard equated to 0.9144 meters, and 1 pound to 0.4535923. That is, formally, the United States has already adopted the metric system for 145 years as the standard of measures and weights, and for about 120 years in this country everything should be measured in meters and kilograms. But, as practice shows, making a decision does not mean its implementation in real life.

Many prominent scientists and politicians in the United States were supporters of the obligatoryness of the metric system for the whole country. In 1971, it looked like the United States was finally going to be among the countries to adopt the metric system. The National Bureau of Standards released the Metric America report recommending that the country switch to metric within ten years.

In 1975, Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act, the essence of which was the same as the recommendations of the standards experts, but with only two important differences. There was no strict time frame, and the very transition to the metric system assumed voluntariness. As a result, the country's schoolchildren began to go through the SI system, and some companies attempted "metrification", which turned into futile propaganda, since there was no real action to switch to metric units.

It turned out that the United States uses units of measurement that are already forgotten in the rest of the world. An increasing number of consumers of American products began to demand that the supplied goods be accompanied by the indication of characteristics in the metric system. As American companies opened more and more production facilities in Europe and Asia, it became necessary to decide which units to use: metric or traditional American.

Recognizing these complexities, in 1988 Congress amended the Metric Conversion Act to make the metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures in the United States for trade and commerce." At the end of 1992, federal agencies were required to use metric units when measuring quantities related to procurement, grants, and other matters pertaining to business activity. But these instructions concerned only state structures. Private business remained free to use the familiar measurement system. Attempts have been made to interest small businesses in the metric system, but there has been little progress.

To date, only about 30% of the products manufactured in the USA are "metrified". The pharmaceutical industry in the United States is referred to as “strictly metric,” because all characteristics of a country's pharmaceutical products are reported in metric units only. Beverages have designations in both metric and traditional US systems of values. This industry is considered "mildly metric". The metric system is also used in the United States by film, tool and bicycle manufacturers. For the rest, in the United States, they prefer to measure in the old fashioned way. In ancient inches and pounds. And this applies even to such a young industry as high technology.

What prevents a highly industrialized country from switching to the system of measures and weights generally accepted on our planet? There are a number of reasons for this.

Conservatism and Cost Prevent Metric Conversion

One of the reasons is the costs that would have to be borne by the country's economy in the event of the transition to the SI system. After all, technical drawings and instructions for the most complex equipment would have to be revised. This would require a lot of work of highly paid specialists. And, therefore, money. For example, NASA engineers reported that converting space shuttle blueprints, software and documentation to metric units would cost US $ 370 million, about half the cost of a conventional space shuttle launch.

But the high costs of the transition alone will not explain the cool attitude of Americans to the metric system. Psychological factors play their own, and not the least, role in restraining the country's transition to an international system of measures and weights. The stubborn conservatism of Americans makes them resist any innovation, especially those that come from foreigners.

Americans always love to do things their own way. Individualism is the main feature of the representatives of this people. The descendants of the conquerors of the vast expanses of the Wild West stubbornly reject attempts to force them to abandon their usual childhood inches and pounds.

No high technology can force a person to reconsider their conservative views. For example, commercial mobile communications have been around since 1947. But it only really became interesting in the early 1980s. Events happen only when the consciousness of the average person is ready to accept them. And this, in turn, is possible only if a person sees the meaning in it. And the average American simply does not see much sense for himself personally in the metric system.

Therefore, all efforts to introduce the metric system in the United States run up against the impregnable stronghold of the everyday life of ordinary citizens of the country who do not want to let the meters and kilograms go there. There is another important reason, which we talked about a little earlier. A significant part of the largest corporations in the world are located in the United States. Their products are competitive in the global market, even in spite of the unusual inches and pounds. What's unusual there! The whole world will be very surprised if one day the diagonal of the screen of the next smartphone will be indicated in centimeters familiar from the school bench, and not in inches, seemingly descended from the pages of a history textbook. This means that Americans have no reason to abandon their traditional system of weights and measures.

sources
Based on materials from science.howstuffworks.com

Conversion tables for feet and inches to centimeters (height) and pounds to kilograms (weight).

Hello my dear readers! We all know the "golden rule" of the internet shopaholic:

"Carefully study the reviews about your new brand or product before you buy it!"

How often have you seen such reviews:

"I'm 5 ′ 8 ″ 180 and the large was huge on me, the length is above the ankles but well below the knee. I’ve always had a small waist for my size even after gaining 25lbs over the ... "

« I'm a very large woman ( 5'6 ″ tall and 260lbs... Size 48DDD chest. I wanted a long dress that was basic and comfy vs a "moo-moo" This thing fit the bill. Of… «

“I bought one in every color! I am petite ( 5 ′ 2 ″) and I like that it comes right across the tops of my feet! Pairs perfectly with… "

What do these numbers, unusual for the Belarusian eye, mean? Just height and weight (yes, not parameters (90-60-90), as is customary in our country, but weight).

To measure length, Americans use feet and inches, and to measure weight - pounds... So, the first review given as an example was written by a person with a height of 173 cm and a weight of 82 kg (5 ′ 8 ″ 180).

If you, like me, do not like to study the reviews of happy and not very American buyers with a calculator in your hands, then here is a glorious table for converting feet and inches to centimeters to help us all:

If you need a different length that does not fit in the table, you still have to arm yourself with a calculator:

1 Foot (Foot) = 30.48 cm

1 Inch (Inch) = 2.54cm

I still have not learned to navigate in the size of clothes by the weight of a person. But, suddenly, you are in this guru? Then this table for converting pounds to kilograms will help you:

1 Pound = 0.454 kg

Here is such a short, but hopefully useful article.)))

P.S. Ask all your questions in the comments to this article - I will be happy to answer them! And don't forget SHOP CLANG, not to miss new interesting articles!

The text of the work is placed without images and formulas.
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Introduction …………………………………………………………………… .3

Chapter 1. What is a measure of length? .......................................... ..............................4

Chapter 2. Measures of length in the past in different countries ……… ... ……………… ..5

Chapter 3. Ancient Russian measures of length …………………………………… 7

Chapter 4. Modern measures of length ... ... …………………………………… .11

Conclusion ……………………………. …………………………………… .13

List of used literature…. …………………………………… 14

INTRODUCTION

It is impossible to imagine the life of a person who does not take measurements: these are tailors, mechanics, and ordinary schoolchildren. What existed before the ruler, the meter, was invented? How did the measures of length appear? What measures of length are used in European countries? I answered these questions in my design work.

Objective - list and analyze the measures of length that existed in Russia and in European countries.

Tasks:

Find and analyze scientific and methodological literature on the topic of work.

Find out what measures of length were used by our ancestors in Russia and in other countries.

List current measures of length.

Make a conclusion.

CHAPTER 1. WHAT IS A MEASURE OF LENGTH?

Measure - a way of determining the quantity by the adopted unit. A linear, linear measure is used to indicate distances or the size of lines. (V. Dahl)

Measures of length - used to reproduce lengths of a given size. Measures of length are subdivided into dashed, end and bar-end measures. (Physical encyclopedia).

Measures of length — used to reproduce lengths of a given size; are subdivided into dashed, end and bar-end. The dimensions of the line measures of length (rods, tapes, wires, etc.) are determined by the distance between the lines applied to them. (Big Encyclopedic Dictionary).

Measures of length - Egyptian system The most ancient: Fur (elbow) = 7 shespam = 52.3 cm. Shesp (palm) = 4 tebam = 7.47 cm. You (finger) = 1.87 cm. Egyptian system (from 5 to 1 centuries BC inclusive): Atur ordinary = 3 miles = 5.235 km. Atur royal = 1 1/2 parasangam. (Encyclopedia of Mythology)

CHAPTER 2. OLD LENGTH MEASURES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

Have ancient Egyptians the main measure of length was elbow (the distance from the end of the fingers to the bent elbow). It was divided into seven palms, and the palm into four fingers. The number of elbows was different.

In ancient Egypt, exemplary measures were invented: elbow, palm, finger. Now it did not matter how long a person's elbow or palm was, he measured not with his own, but with his common elbow, i.e. conditional stick.

Ancient arabs the standard of length was considered hair from a donkey's muzzle.

V England there were also units of length associated with parts of the human body:

inch (2.5cm) translated from Dutch means "thumb";

foot (30cm or 12 inches) from English "leg";

yard is the distance from the nose of King Henry I to the end of the middle

finger of his outstretched hand.

The British still use royal foot equal to the length of the king's foot, by the yard - its length is 0, 9144 m. To measure small lengths, the length of the thumb joint was used - inch. The meaning of an inch was legalized in England as the length of three grains of barley. In English everyday life, the measure is still used barley grain ... In English practice, there was also such a measure as plowman's good stick .

V Rome in use was a measure equal to a thousand double steps, which received the name mile .

Many peoples measured the length with steps, double steps, and canes.

Very long distances were measured by transitions, halts and even days.

V Of Japan there was a measure called horse shoe ... It was equal to the distance during which the straw sole tied to the horse's hooves would wear out.

For many peoples, the distance was determined by the duration of the flight of an arrow or cannonball. In the old days, many units of length were associated with weapons. Nautical league - a measure equal to the range of a cannon shot with which the ship can be fired (1 naval league = 5560 m). V Indidhanush - a measure equal to the distance between the ends of the bow (1 dhanush = 183 cm). V Persinease - a measure equal to the distance that a spear thrown by a warrior flies (1 neise = 4 - 5 m).

V Chinain , among the ancient Slavs shootout - a measure equal to the distance traveled by an arrow fired from a bow (1 yin = 32 m).

Measure equal to the length of the foot

The smallest ancient measure in Europe An inch is a measure equal to the length of the upper phalanx of the thumb. 1inch = 2.54cm The largest ancient measure in Europe A mile (from the Latin word mille - thousand) is a measure equal to a thousand double steps (1 mile = 1478.7 m). In the Anglo-American system of measures, Land mile = 1609 m. Sea mile = 1852 m.

CHAPTER 3. OLD RUSSIAN LENGTH MEASURES

In the old days, Russian measures of length were based on the sizes of different parts of the human body.

Fly fathom - 1.76m - the distance between arms outstretched to the sides.

Oblique fathom - 2.48 m - the distance from the heel of the right leg to the toes of the extended left hand.

Arshin - the measure of length in a number of countries, in Russia since the 16th century, is equal to 16 vershoks (71cm).

Elbow - the distance from the end of the fingers to the bent elbow.

Span - an old measure of length, equal to the distance between the stretched thumb and forefinger.

Inch - Russian homeometric unit of length (1 inch = 2cm54mm).

Foot - a unit of length in the Russian system of measures (1 foot = 1/7 of the back = 12 inches).

Vershok - originally equal to the length of the phalanx of the index finger.

Long distances on land used to be measured in Russia in versts .

1 verst is equal to 1 km 67m.

Mile - a unit of length that was widespread in national non-metric systems of units and is now used mainly in maritime affairs. 1 mile (sea) = 1.852 km; in the UK, 1 mile (sea) = 1.853 km, 1 mile overland (charter) = 1.609 km (also currently used in the USA). Old Russian mile = 7.468 km.

The system of uniform measures in the Russian state basically took shape by the end of the 17th century.

CHAPTER 4. MODERN LENGTH MEASURES

Nowadays, to measure length, we use a measure called a meter. The meter is the basic unit of the metric system. The metric system was adopted in France at the end of the 18th century. Then the meter was defined as one ten-millionth of the section of the earth's meridian from the North Pole to the equator. The metric system gradually replaced local and national systems in other countries and in 1875 was legally recognized in 17 countries, including Russia. The International Commission on the meter in 1872 decided to take the "archival" meter, stored in Paris, "as it is" as the standard of length. But it is very inconvenient to constantly go to Paris to check with the reference meter. Therefore, since 1983, a meter is equal to the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 of a second.

Long distances are usually measured in kilometers. In a word kilometer Kilo means thousand meters. When writing, this unit is designated as follows: km. 1 km = 1000 m.

Meter is a unit of length that is larger than a centimeter or even a decimeter. In meters, you can measure the length and width of a room, the distance between houses, the amount of fabric purchased, the length of a piece of wallpaper. In this case, for example, a tape measure is used to measure the length of a room. The meter is designated as follows: m. Roulettes are of different lengths. The seller uses a wooden ruler called a tailor's meter.

The lengths of the segments and the distance between two points can be measured using a regular ruler, giving results in dm and cm.

Decimeter - a tenth of a meter.

Centimeter - one hundredth of a meter.

1 dm = 10 cm

1 cm = 10 mm

Sections 1 cm long are divided on a ruler by small strokes. Each of the segments is divided into 10 equal parts. The length of each such part is equal to one millimeter.

Millimeter is a unit of length. It is designated as follows: mm.

CONCLUSION

In our work, we have listed and analyzed the measures of length that existed in Russia and European countries. They gave examples and illustrated some of the ancient measures of length.

In the course of our work, we studied such ancient measures of length as:

Fly fathom

Oblique fathom

Now we will know more about old measures of length in Russia and other countries, which will be useful to us in the future in various lessons at school.

The goal of the work has been achieved.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE

N. Ya Vilenkin "Behind the Pages of a Mathematics Textbook". Publishing house "Education", 1989

N. Ya. Vilenkin "Mathematics" grade 5, textbook for educational institutions. 21st ed., Erased. - M .: Mnemosina, 2007.

Magazine "Primary School", 2004 # 6

http://slovorus.ru

http://www.iro.yar.ru/resource/distant/math/metrol_3.htm