From Feet to Fathoms Lab Activity

History:  English units are the historical units of measurement in medieval England which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. They were redefined in England in 1824 by a Weights and Measures Act, which retained many but not all of the unit names with slightly different values, and again in the 1970s by the International System of Units as a subset of the metric system.  (From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_units)

Guiding Question:  What is the importance of having an International measuring system?  How accurate are old measurements using body parts?

Hypothesis: The metric system is better than the old English system because everything links together and it doesn't vary from person to person.  

Materials:

·         Partner

·         Objects in the classroom (whiteboard, desk, hallway, SPACE book, Peep, Crayon box)

·         List of ways to measure: 

Pace:  legs outstretched =1 yard approximately or 1 meter

Egyptian cubit= elbow to tip of the middle finger= 18 inches or 45 cm

Fathom = middle finger to middle finger across the body = 6 feet, 180 cm, 1.8m

Palm = across the palm of the hand = 3 inches or 8 cm

Hand including thumb = 4 inches or 10 cm

Span = from tip of thumb to tip of little finger= 3 palms or 9 inches or 24 cm

English yard = from fingertip of arm to nose = 36 inches or about 1 meter

Foot = 12 “or 30 cm approximately

Fingernail = tip of pinky =1/2 inch = 1 cm.

·         Meter stick or measuring tape

·         Calculator

Procedure: 

1.       Make a data table in your notebook with 7 columns and 7 rows.  (See below).

2.       Choose one of the six objects or distances you will measure.

3.       Determine what form of measurement you will make with the first object. (For example:  Length of the 6^th grade hallway with paces, book with palm or hand, fingernail for crayon box, etc…)

4.       Measure it with the determined form of measurement 3 times, and then find the average. 

5.       Measure it with the meter stick/or measuring tape and find the actual measurement.  (IMPORTANT!!!!!  BE SURE THAT THE UNITS OF MEASUREMENT STAY THE SAME, either inches or centimeters or yards or feet or meters and the average needs to be in the same units)

6.       Repeat the same for each of the five objects that are left and measure it with a different type of measurement, 3 times, find the average and again the actual measurement.

7.       Compare class data results.  Find the average of these results. 

Record & Analyze

Data Table:

Graph:  You may choose to make a graph to make the data easier to analyze.  Highlight the Object column and Average and Actual Measurement columns and Insert bar graph.  You may decide to translate all the units into either inches or centimeters for the averages and actual measurements which may make it easier to analyze as well, but BE AWARE that this may ruin your results.

 

Data Analysis: 

What patterns or relationships do you see between the forms of measurement, the averages you and your partner got and the actual measurement for each object? 

When Tatjana and I measured and wrote out our results the averages varied from the actual measurements which is because we used our own bodies. I think the modern world owes a lot to the French. The English system has been written on rulers now and has a fixed measurement. One improvement that I think could be made to the English system is that it uses body parts that don't vary too much between person like the fathom.

Conclusion:  How effective were the old English forms of measurement compared to using the meter stick or measuring tape?  What is the importance of having an International measuring system?  Answer the guiding question here. Was your hypothesis correct in the beginning?  If no, what do you think now?  Which objects were the easiest or most accurate to measure?  Which form of measurement did you prefer the most?  State why for both questions.  Give examples to help you explain.
So to conclude this lab I think the English and the French system have their ups and downs but I do like the french system because it is all logical and all links together but the English system is available to everyone and you can just use your body parts which are relatively accurate. But with the French system another thing that I like is the fact that it uses Latin words such as centi milli and kilo. But I also think the English system because most of the previous generation was brought up with it so they talk in feet and inches.

Further inquiry: What improvements would you make next time? What errors did you and your partner make? Do you have any further questions about measurement?  If so, what were they? 
I think that if I had a next time I would try to do more than three measurements to be exact and find a good average and do an equal amount of work with Tatjana because I found that when I was doing my measurements instead of helping she would be chatting to a friend or someone. I for myself thought I did a very good job getting all the work done quickly and effectively. I am currently researching other types of measurements because I was wondering where they all came from. Were there measurements before the cubit?