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Warm-Up Activity: Measuring Ourselves

In this activity, we use our own bodies to measure various lengths and compare our results with others. Discover the history of measurement and explore different systems of measurement. Engage in a discussion about why we measure and how we choose what to use.

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Warm-Up Activity: Measuring Ourselves

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  1. 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.

  2. A Concise and Abbreviated History of Measurement photo credit: Xavier de Jauréguiberry Relief carving of Ancient Greek measurement using hand span and foot image credit: Jerry Lipka et al Diagram of Yup’ik (Alaska Native) units of length Diagram of Egyptian definitions of cubit and palm Units of measurement based on the human body

  3. The Smoot photo credit: Denimadept creative commons photo credit: MIT museum via Dave Schumaker The Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge, MA. The Harvard Bridge is 364.4 Smoots in length, plus or minus an ear. Oliver Smoot being used to measure the Harvard Bridge in 1958.

  4. 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

  5. Systems of measurement commonly used in the US: The English or Imperial System image credit: Ian Whitelaw The early English inch was defined as the length of three barleycorns laid end-to-end photo credit: Andrew Robinson King George the III of England’s standard weights from 1773.

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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.

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