Since the beginning of time, people have used measurement systems to compare various objects and phenomena. It is amazing how boundless the imagination of our ancestors was! That only they did not use to designate measures of various sizes.
Introducing the top 10 most unusual measurement systems.
10. Plowing
Previously, English farmers used an unusual way to determine the size of their land. They measured the area of land based on the time it took the oxen to plow them. Before the farmers came up with this way of accounting for their possessions, they used a different system of measures. Per acre was the maximum amount of land that ox could process in one day.
9. Time
Remember, have you ever heard from someone such a phrase: “I will do it in an instant”? In fact, a moment is a very real measure of time, which is 0.1 second. These measurement symbols are usually used in computer and atomic engineering.
Another unusual measure of time is the length of a dog’s life. The legend on which these measurements are based says that 7 years of a dog’s life are equal to 1 year of human life. In reality, this is not due to the fact that dogs feel the time differently, they just age faster. Although this also depends a lot on the breed. And in general, measuring the age of an animal relative to humans is stupid enough - it's the same as measuring the years of fish in relation to the life of fur seals. Despite this, the myth has become so famous that there is now a canine year, and it equals 52 days or ⅟₇ of the calendar year.
8. Barley Grain
First, the true grain size was used. But after a while it was standardized, and now this measure is 0.85 cm.
However, one should not think that grain was the smallest unit of measure for length. There was also a value that was equal to one fourth of the grain, and it bore a rather poetic name - poppy seed. Interestingly, barley grain is now used in some regions of Western Europe and the United States.
7. Human efforts
During the Second World War, an incredibly incompetent man who later went down in history as Commander Pooter periodically caused all sorts of troubles. With his ignorance, he either frustrated or delayed the solution of important tasks, which in many respects determine the superiority of allied forces. Now the definition of “Pouter” has become not only a common noun, but also a unit of measurement, which is customary to measure the volume of various obstacles that a person creates either by malicious intent or by stupidity.
6. Hands and fingers
This system of measures has been widely used in the UK. Its essence was to determine the proportions of the palm and hand (including shoulders). All parameters were taken into account, however, a similar measurement system is no longer used in our time.
5. Alcohol
Volumes of alcoholic beverages are also indicated by certain terms. In Northern England, the word “pony”, in addition to its main meaning, could also be the name of a measure of alcohol, which equaled two sips (30 ml). Nowadays, one standard serving of some strong drink is called a “pony serving”, in memory of the old measuring system.
4. Death and Destruction
In many European countries, the word “grave” denoted a unit of weight - the English word “grave” comes from the word “gravity.” After some time, the name of this quantity was replaced by the more famous “kilogram”. Similar changes occurred during the French Revolution.
There are also other types of designations of the destructive properties of various objects or phenomena. For example, to indicate the energy that is released during various types of natural disasters, the unit used is the “Hiroshima Bomb”, named after the Japanese city, which was destroyed by the US military by atomic bombing during the Second World War.
To measure the radiation that any living creature emits, a measure is often used - the “banana equivalent." It is equal to the volume of radioactive particles that enter the human digestive system along with 1 banana.
3. Technology
Since the moment when the newly-minted star Will Wheaton gained about 500 thousand followers on Twitter, his name began to indicate the degree of popularity, which is now called “Wheaton”. The average user of this social network has approximately 150 subscribers, which is equivalent to 300 microWhitton.
2. Troy
The world famous legend of Troy says that then only one woman had such beauty and charm, inspired by which the most fearless warriors dared to fight to the death for her heart, and because of this terrible bloody wars periodically occurred. This beautiful lady was the infamous Elena Troyanskaya.
Few people know that there is a measure that bears the name of this ancient beauty. She is called “Elena”. This measure defines the “strength” of beauty. This woman was so beautiful that she had the ability to influence the fate of many people. Therefore, 1 Elena is identical to this “power".
1. Animals
The cow maternity index has only recently been widely used by American farmers to indicate the largest number of “pregnant” (having a fruit) heads that can be fed from the resources of a certain part of agricultural land. Even if volumes of milk production are not taken into account, this value helps to soberly assess the degree of soil fertility.
There is another unusual measure - donkey power. This is almost the same as horsepower, but the difference is that the donkey force is only a quarter of the horsepower, and is equal to 250 watts.