Fall Asleep While Learning About Cubits

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about cubits. I figured learning about the ancient way in which we have learned to measure things sounded like the perfect snooze fest for tonight; I hope it doesn't disappoint. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

Qubit.

The Qubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.

It was primarily associated with the Sumerians,

Egyptians,

And Israelites.

The term Qubit is found in the Bible regarding Noah's Ark,

The Ark of the Covenant,

The Tabernacle,

And Solomon's Temple.

The common Qubit was divided into 6 palms x 4 fingers equals 24 digits.

Royal Qubits added a palm for 7 palms x 4 fingers equals 28 digits.

These lengths typically ranged from 44.

4 to 52.

92 centimeters,

With an ancient Roman Qubit being as long as 120 centimeters.

Qubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in antiquity,

During the Middle Ages,

And as recently as early modern times.

The term is still used in hedgelaying,

The length of the forearm being frequently used to determine the interval between stakes placed within the hedge.

The English word Qubit comes from the Latin noun qubitum,

Elbow,

From the verb qubo,

Qubare,

Qubui,

Qubitum,

To lie down,

From which also comes the adjective recumbent.

The ancient Egyptian royal Qubit is the earliest attested standard measure.

Qubit rods were used for the measurement of length.

A number of these rods had survived.

Two are known from the tomb of Maya,

The treasure of the 18th dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamen,

In Saqqara.

Another was found in the tomb of Ka and Thebes.

Fourteen such rods,

Including one double Qubit rod,

Were described and compared by Lepsius in 1865.

These Qubit rods range from 523.

5 to 529.

2 millimeters in length,

And are divided into seven palms.

Each palm is divided into four fingers,

And the fingers are further subdivided.

Early evidence for the use of this royal Qubit comes from the early dynastic period.

On the Palermo stone,

The flood level of the Nile river during the reign of the pharaoh Jer,

Is given as measuring six Qubits and one palm.

Use of the royal Qubit is also known from Old Kingdom architecture,

From at least as early as the construction of the step pyramid of Djoser,

Designed by Imhotep in around 2700 BC.

Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement originated in the loosely organized city-states of early dynastic Sumer.

Each city,

Kingdom,

And trade guild had its own standards,

Until the formation of the Akkadian Empire,

When Sargon of Akkad issued a common standard.

This standard was improved by Naram-Sin,

But fell into disuse after the Akkadian Empire dissolved.

The standard of the Naram-Sin was re-adopted in the Ura III period by the Nans-Him,

Which reduced a plethora of multiple standards to a few agreed-upon common groupings.

Successors to Sumerian civilization,

Including the Babylonians,

Assyrians,

And Persians,

Continued to use these groupings.

The classical Mesopotamian system formed the basis for Elamite,

Hebrew,

Eurasian,

Hurrian,

Hittite,

Ugaritic,

Venetian,

Babylonian,

Assyrian,

Persian,

Arabic,

And Islamic metrologies.

The classical Mesopotamian system also has a proportional relationship,

By virtue of standardized commerce,

To Bronze Age,

Harappan,

And Egyptian metrologies.

In 1916,

During the last years of the Ottoman Empire,

And in the middle of World War I,

The German Assyriologist Eckhard Unger found a copper alloy bar while excavating at Nippur.

The bar dates from circa 2650 BCE,

And Unger claimed it was used as a measurement standard.

This irregularly formed and irregularly marked graduated rule supposedly defined the Sumerian cubit as about 518.

6 millimeters.

There is some evidence that cubits were used to measure angular separation,

The Babylonian Astronomical Diary for 568-567 BCE refers to Jupiter being one cubit behind the elbow of Sagittarius.

One cubit measures about two degrees.

The standard of the cubit,

Hebrew ima,

In different countries and in different ages is varied.

This realization led the rabbis of the second century CE to clarify the length of their cubit,

Saying that the measure of the cubit of which they have spoken applies to the cubit of middle size.

In this case,

The requirement is to make use of a standard six handbreadths to each cubit,

And which handbreadth was not to be confused with an outstretched palm,

But rather one that was clenched and which handbreadth has the standard width of four fingerbreadths,

Each fingerbreadth being equivalent to the width of a thumb,

About 2.

25 centimeters.

This puts the handbreadth at roughly 9 centimeters and six handbreadths at 54 centimeters.

Epiphanius of Salamis,

In his treatise on weights and measures,

Describes how it was customary in his day to take the measurement of the biblical cubit.

The cubit is a measure,

But it is taken from the measure of the forearm,

For the part from the elbow to the wrist and the palm of the hand is called the cubit,

The middle finger of the cubit measure being also extended at the same time,

Measure being also extended at the same time,

And they're being added below at the span,

That is,

Of the hand,

Taken all together.

Rabbi Avraham Chaim Neh put the linear measurement of a cubit at 48 centimeters.

Avraham Yeshe Akerolitz,

A Chazanish,

Dissenting,

Put the length of a cubit at 57.

6 centimeters.

Rabbi and philosopher Maimonides,

Following the Talmud,

Makes a distinction between the cubit of six handbreadths used in ordinary measurements and the cubit of five handbreadths used in measuring the golden altar,

The base of the altar of burnt offerings,

Its circuit and the horns of the altar.

In ancient Greek units of measurement,

The standard forearm cubit,

Greek pekis,

Measured approximately 460 millimeters.

The short forearm cubit,

From the knuckle of the middle finger,

I.

E.

Fists clenched,

To the elbow,

Measured approximately 340 millimeters.

In ancient Rome,

According to Vitruvius,

A cubit was equal to one and a half Roman feet,

Or six palm widths,

Approximately 444 millimeters,

Or 17 and a half inches.

A 120 centimeter cubit,

Approximately four feet long,

Called the Roman ulna,

Was common in the Roman Empire,

Which cubit was measured from the fingers of the outstretched arm opposite the man's hip.

In the Islamic world,

The cubit dira had a similar origin,

Being originally defined as the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.

Several different cubit lengths were current in the medieval Islamic world for the unit of length,

Ranging from 48.

25 to 145.

6 centimeters,

And in turn the dira was commonly subdivided into six handsbreadths,

And each handsbreadth into four fingerbreadths.

The most commonly used definitions were the legal cubit,

Also known as the hand cubit,

A cubit of Yusuf,

Named after the 8th century Abu Yusuf,

Postal cubit,

Freed cubit,

And thread cubit.

It measured 49.

8 centimeters,

Although in the Abbasid caliphate it measured 48.

25 centimeters,

Possibly as a result of reforms of Caliph al-Mamun.

The black cubit,

Adopted in the Abbasid period and fixed by the measure used in the nilometer on Rada Island,

Had 54.

04 centimeters.

It is also known as the common cubit,

Sackcloth cubit,

And was the most commonly used in the Maghreb and Islamic Spain under the name al-dira,

Al-rashashaya.

The king's cubit,

Inherited from the Sasanid Persians,

It measured for a total of 66.

5 centimeters on average.

It was this measure used by Ziyad ibn Abihi for his survey of Iraq,

And is hence also known as Ziyadi cubit,

Or survey cubit.

From Caliph al-Mansur,

It was also known as the Heshamite cubit.

Other identical measures were the work cubit,

And likely also a cubit which measures 65.

6 centimeters.

Other measurements based on the length of the forearm include some lengths of L,

The Russian lokhat,

The Chinese qi,

The Japanese shaku,

And the Indian hasta,

The Thai sok,

The Malay hasta,

The Tamil muskam,

The Telugu mura,

The Khmer hat,

And the Tibetan kru.

A cubit arm in heraldry may be dexter or sinister.

It may be vested with the sleeve,

And may be shown in various positions,

Most commonly erect but also feswise,

Horizontal,

Bendwise,

Diagonal,

And is often shown grasping objects.

It is most often used erect as a crest,

For example by the families of points of iron actin,

Roll of stevenstone,

And torton.

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 own standards for lengths,

Areas,

Volumes,

And masses.

Often such systems were closely tied to one field of use,

So that volume measures used,

For example,

For dry grains were unrelated to those for liquids.

With neither bearing any particular relationship to units of length used for measuring cloths or land.

The development of manufacturing technologies,

And the growing importance of trade between communities,

And ultimately across the earth,

Standardized weights and measures became critical.

Starting in the 18th century,

Modernized,

Simplified,

And uniform systems of weights and measures were developed,

With the fundamental units defined by ever more precise methods in the science of metrology.

The discovery and application of electricity was one factor motivating the development of standardized internationally applicable units.

The comparison of the dimensions of buildings with the descriptions of contemporary writers is another source of information.

An interesting example of this is the comparison of the dimensions of the Greek Parthenon with the description given by Plutarch,

From which a fairly accurate idea of the size of the attic foot is obtained.

Because of the comparative volume of artifacts and documentation,

Much more is known today about the state-sanctioned measures of large advanced societies than about those of smaller societies,

Or about the informal measures that often coexisted with the official ones.

In some cases,

There are only plausible theories,

And different interpretations can be matched to the evidences.

It is possible to group official measurement systems for large societies into historical systems that are relatively stable over time,

Including the Babylonian system,

The Egyptian system,

The Philaterian system of the Ptolemaic age,

The Olympic system of Greece,

The Roman system,

The British system,

And the metric system.

The earliest known uniform systems of weights and measures seem all to have been created at some time in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Egypt,

Mesopotamia,

And the Indus Valley,

And perhaps also Elam in Iran as well.

Early Babylonian and Egyptian records and the Hebrew Bible indicate that length was first measured with the forearm,

Hand,

Or finger,

And that time was measured by the periods of the sun,

Moon,

And other heavenly bodies.

When it was necessary to compare the capacities of containers,

Such as gourds or clay or metal vessels,

They were filled with plant seeds which were then counted to measure the volumes.

When means for weighing were invented,

Seeds and stones served as standards.

For instance,

A carrot,

Still used as a unit for gems,

Was derived from the carob seed.

The Egyptian cubit,

The Indus Valley units of length referred to above,

And the Mesopotamian cubit were used in the 3rd millennium BC and are the earliest known units used by ancient peoples to measure length.

The units of length used in ancient India included the danus or danush,

Bow,

The krosa,

Cry,

Or cow call,

And the yajna,

Stage.

A common cubit was the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.

It was divided into the span of the hand or the length between the tip of the little finger to the tip of the thumb,

One-half cubit,

The palm or width of the hand,

One-sixth,

And the digit or width of the middle finger,

One-twenty-fourth.

The royal cubit,

Which was a standard cubit enhanced by an extra palm,

Thus seven palms or twenty-eight digits long,

Was used in constructing buildings and monuments and in surveying in ancient Egypt.

The inch,

Foot,

And yard evolved from these units through a complicated transformation not yet fully understood.

Some believe they evolved from cubic measures.

Others believe they were simple proportions or multiples of the cubit.

In whichever case,

The Greeks and Romans inherited the foot from the Egyptians.

The Roman foot,

Approximately 296 mm,

Was divided into both 12 unsai inches,

Approximately 24.

7 mm,

And 16 digits,

Approximately 18.

5 mm.

The Romans also introduced the mille passus,

1,

000 paces,

Or double steps,

The pace being equal to five Roman feet,

Approximately 1,

480 mm.

The Roman mile of 5,

000 feet was introduced into England during the occupation.

Queen Elizabeth I reigned from 1558 to 1603,

Changed by statute the mile to 5,

280 feet,

Approximately 1,

609 m,

Or eight furlongs,

A furlong being forty rod units,

Approximately 201 m,

Of 5.

5 yards,

Approximately 5.

03 m each.

The introduction of the yard,

0.

9144 m as a unit of length,

Came later.

But its origin is not definitely known.

Some believe the origin was the double cubit.

Others believe that it originated from cubic measure.

Whatever its origin,

The early yard was divided by the binary method into two,

Four,

Eight,

And sixteen parts,

Called the half yard,

Span,

Finger,

And nail.

The association of the yard with the grid or circumference of a person's waist,

Or with the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the thumb of King Henry I,

Are probably standardizing actions,

Since several yards were in use in Britain.

There were also the rod,

Pole,

Perch,

And thumb for measurements of length.

There were also the rod,

Pole,

Perch,

And thumb for measurements of length.

The following lists the equivalents.

Twelve lines is one inch.

Twelve inches is one foot.

Three feet is one yard.

One thousand seven hundred and sixty yards is one mile.

Thirty-six inches is one yard.

Four hundred and forty yards is a quarter mile.

Eight hundred and eighty yards is a half a mile.

One hundred links is one chain.

Ten chains is one furlong.

Eight furlongs is one mile.

Four inches is one hand.

Twenty-two yards is one chain.

Five point five yards one rod,

Pole,

Or perch.

Four poles one chain.

Forty poles is one furlong.

The grain was the earliest unit of mass and is the smallest unit in the apothecary,

Avoir-du-pois,

Tower,

And troy systems.

The early unit was a grain of wheat or barley corn used to weigh the precious metals silver and gold.

Larger units preserved in stone standards were developed that were used as both units of mass and of monetary currency.

The pound was derived from the mina unit used by ancient civilizations.

A smaller unit was the shekel and a larger unit was the talent.

The magnitude of these units varied from place to place.

The Babylonians and Sumerians had a system in which there were sixty shekels in a mina and sixty minas in a talent.

The Roman talent consisted of one hundred libra pound,

Which were smaller in magnitude than the mina.

The troy pound,

Approximately three hundred and seventy three point two grams,

Used in England and the United States for monetary purposes,

Like the Roman pound,

Was divided into twelve ounces,

But the Roman uncia ounce was smaller.

The carat is a unit for measuring gemstones that had its origin in the carob seed,

Which later is standardized at one over one hundred and forty four ounce and then point two grams.

Goods of commerce were originally traded by number or volume.

When weighing of goods began,

Units of mass based on a volume of grain or water were developed.

The diverse magnitudes of units having the same name,

Which still appear today in our dry and liquid measures,

Could have arisen from the various commodities traded.

The larger avoir du poids pound for goods of commerce might have been based on volume of water,

Which has a higher bulk density than grain.

The stone,

Quarter,

Hundredweight,

And ton were larger units of mass used in Britain.

Today only the stone continues in customary use for measuring personal body weight.

The present stone is fourteen pounds,

But an earlier unit appears to have been sixteen pounds.

The other units were multiples of two,

Eight,

And one hundred and sixty times the stone,

Or twenty eight,

One twelve,

And two thousand two hundred and forty pounds,

Respectively.

The hundredweight was approximately equal to two talents.

The long ton is equal to two thousand two hundred and forty pounds.

The short ton is equal to two thousand pounds,

And the ton,

Or metric ton,

T,

Is equal to one thousand kilograms,

Or one megagram.

The division of the circle into three hundred and sixty degrees,

And the day into hours,

Minutes,

And seconds,

Can be traced to the Babylonians,

Who had a sexagesimal system of numbers.

The three hundred and sixty degrees may have been related to a year of three hundred and sixty days.

Many other systems of measurement divided the day differently,

Counting hours,

Decimal time,

Etc.

Other calendars divided the year differently.

Decimal numbers are an essential part of the metric system,

With only one base unit and multiples created on the decimal base.

The figures remain the same.

This simplifies calculations.

Although the Indians used decimal numbers for mathematical computations,

It was Simon Stephen who,

In 1585,

First advocated the use of decimal numbers for everyday purposes in his booklet,

De Tiende,

Old Dutch for the Tenth.

He also declared that it would only be a matter of time before decimal numbers were used for currencies and measurements.

His notation for decimal fractions was clumsy,

But this was overcome with the introduction of the decimal point,

Generally attributed to Bartholomeus Patiscus,

Who used this notation in his trigonometrical tables.

In 1670,

Gabriel Mouton In 1670,

Gabriel Mouton published a proposal that was in essence similar to John Wilkinson's proposal for a universal measure,

Except that his base unit of length would have been one over one thousandth of a minute of arc of geographical latitude.

He proposed calling this unit the virga.

Rather than using different names for each unit of length,

He proposed a series of names that had prefixes,

Rather like the prefixes found in SI.

In 1790,

Thomas Jefferson submitted a report to the United States Congress in which he proposed the adoption of a decimal system of coinage and of weights and measures.

He proposed calling his base unit of length a foot,

Which he suggested should be either three-tenths or one-third of the length of a pendulum that had a period of one second.

That is,

Three-tenths or one-third of the standard proposed by John Wilkins over a century previously.

This would have equated to 11.

755 English inches or 13.

06 English inches.

Like Wilkins,

The names that he proposed for multiples and subunits of his base units of measure were the names of units of measures that were in use at the time.

The great interest in geodesy during this era and the measurement system ideas that developed influenced how the continental U.

S.

Was surveyed and parceled.

A story of how Jefferson's full vision for the new measurement system came close to displacing the Gunter chain and their traditional acre,

But ended up not doing so,

Is explored in Andrew Linklater's Measuring America.

The metric system was first described in 1668 and officially adopted by France in 1799.

Over the 19th and 20th centuries,

It became the dominant system worldwide,

Although several countries,

Including the United States,

China,

And the United Kingdom,

Continued to use their customary units.

Among the numerous customary systems,

Many have been adapted to become an integer multiple of a related metric unit.

The Scandinavian mile is now defined as 10 kilometers,

The Chinese Jin is now defined as 0.

5 kilograms,

And the Dutch Anz is now defined as 100 grams.

Reviews

These episodes don't bore me to sleep. They INTEREST me to sleep. By which I mean that they distract me from my own thoughts that keep me awake. Thank you!

That’s a great topic for discussion at a party if you are trying to make a clean getaway. 😂 Luckily I wanted to fall asleep! 🤣🤣