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History of measurement. The earliest recorded systems of weights and measures originate in the 3rd or 4th millennium BC. Even the very earliest civilizations needed measurement for purposes of agriculture, construction and trade. Early standard units might only have applied to a single community or small region, with every area developing its ...
Length is commonly understood to mean the most extended dimension of a fixed object. [ 1] However, this is not always the case and may depend on the position the object is in. Various terms for the length of a fixed object are used, and these include height, which is vertical length or vertical extent, width, breadth, and depth.
The history of the metric system began during the Age of Enlightenment with measures of length and weight derived from nature, along with their decimal multiples and fractions. The system became the standard of France and Europe within half a century. Other measures with unity ratios [ Note 1] were added, and the system went on to be adopted ...
Ancient Roman units of length Roman unit English name Equal to Metric equivalent Imperial equivalent Notes digitus: finger: 1 ⁄ 16 pes 18.5 mm 0.728 in 0.0607 ft uncia pollex inch thumb 1 ⁄ 12 pes 24.6 mm 0.971 in 0.0809 ft palmus (minor) palm 1 ⁄ 4 pes 74 mm 0.243 ft palmus maior: palm length (lit."greater palm") 3 ⁄ 4 pes 222 mm
The unit of length is the metre, defined by the distance, at 0°, between the axes of the two central lines marked on the bar of platinum–iridium kept at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures and declared Prototype of the metre by the 1st Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, this bar being subject to standard atmospheric ...
perch, used variously to measure length or area; acre and acre's breadth; furlong; mile; The best-attested of these is the perch, which varied in length from 10 to 25 feet, with the most common value (16 1 ⁄ 2 feet or 5.03 m) remaining in use until the twentieth century. [1] Later development of the English system continued in 1215 in the ...
The foot (standard symbol: ft) [ 1][ 2] is a unit of length in the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. The prime symbol, ′, is commonly used to represent the foot. [ 3] In both customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches, and one yard comprises three feet.
Length measurement. Length measurement, distance measurement, or range measurement ( ranging) refers to the many ways in which length, distance, or range can be measured. The most commonly used approaches are the rulers, followed by transit-time methods and the interferometer methods based upon the speed of light .