Warm-Up Activity: Measuring Ourselves

Using your own body, determine:

•How many hands tall are you?
•How many finger-widths tall is your head?
•How many finger-widths is it from your
elbow to the tip of your finger?
Compare your results with your neighbors.
 A Concise and Abbreviated History of
Measurement

photo credit: Xavier de Jauréguiberry

Relief carving of Ancient

Greek measurement using
image credit: Jerry Lipka et al hand span and foot

Diagram of Yup’ik (Alaska Diagram of Egyptian

Native) units of length definitions of cubit and
palm

Units of measurement based on the human body

 The Smoot

photo credit: Denimadept creative commons photo credit: MIT museum via Dave Schumaker

The Harvard Bridge between Boston and

Oliver Smoot being used to measure the
Cambridge, MA. The Harvard Bridge is 364.4
Harvard Bridge in 1958.
Smoots in length, plus or minus an ear.
 With trade and taxation came the need for
standardized units

photo credit: Andrew Robinson

Standardized weights from the Indus river valley

photo credit: Claudia Zaslavsky

Standard weights for measuring gold

dust used by the Asante of Ghana

photo credit: John Hill creative commons

A bronze ruler from the Han dynasty in China

Systems of measurement commonly used in the US:
The English or Imperial System

image credit: Ian Whitelaw

The early English inch was defined as photo credit: Andrew Robinson

the length of three barleycorns laid end-

to-end King George the III of England’s
standard weights from 1773.
Systems of measurement commonly used in the US:
The Metric System

Since 1983, the meter has been defined as

the distance that light travels in 1
299,792458th of a second

Commemorative stamp showing the

French Republic measuring one quarter of
the earth’s circumference – the original
idea behind the meter
 Systems of measurement commonly used in the US:
More about the metric system
1 cm
1 cm

1 cm

A cube of water with sides each 1 cm has

a mass of 1 gram

photo credit: Harry Turner, National Reseach Council of Canada

The Canadian Standard Kilogram. The

kilogram is the only unit in the metric
system defined by an actual object.

The nickel has a mass of 5 grams

 Bibliography

Lipka, Jerry, Tod Shockey and Barbara Adams. “Bridging Yup’ik Ways of
Measuring to Western Mathematics” in Learning and Teaching
Measurement: 2003 Yearbook. Ed. Douglas Clements and George
Bright. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc,
Reston, VA. 2003

Robinson, Andrew. The Story of Measurement. Thames and Hudson Ltd,

London, UK. 2007

Tavernor, Robert. Smoot’s Ear: The Measure of Humanity. Yale University

Press, New Haven, CT. 2007

Whitelaw, Ian. A Measure of All Things: the story of man and measurement.
Quid publishing, Hove, England. 2007

Zaslavsky, Claudia. Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Culture.

Prindle, Weber, and Schmidt Inc, Boston, MA. 1973
 Your turn: Discussion

In groups of 2 or 3, discuss the following

questions:
•Why do we measure?
•How do we choose what to use to measure?

Think not only in general, but also in the context

of your work in your program.