The foot as a unit of measurement gets its name because it may first
based on the length of the human foot.
Long ago, people didn’t have
rulers to measure with. Instead, they
used such handy “rulers” as the human foot or hand (an inch was the breadth of
the thumb).
 |
| One Foot Ruler |
The ancient Romans divided their foot measurement into 12 “unicae”
(inches).
The English borrowed the old Roman measurement. However, they made their foot the length of
the king’s foot and measured an inch as the length of three grains of barley
laying end-to-end.
Of course, such measurements were not always accurate. Same barley grains and some kings’ foot were
longer than others.
To solve this problem, it was eventually decided to make standard
units in which every foot and each inch were just too long. Today, when you measure foot and inches with a ruler, you will be
sure of getting the same answer every time. - Dick Rogers
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