Measuring By Hand - Measurement Worksheet

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Name
Date
A–6
Measuring by Hand
The inch, the foot, and the yard were not always what they are today. People used to use
body measures to find the length of objects. An inch was the width of a thumb. A foot was
the length of the foot from the back of the heel to the tip of the longest toe. A yard was the
distance from the nose to the tip of the middle finger of the outstretched arm.
Use a ruler to complete the exercises below.
Measure the width of your thumb to the nearest eighth of an inch.
1.
How close is the width of your thumb to an inch?
2.
The earliest standard unit of measure was the cubit. The cubit was the distance from the tip
of the middle finger to the elbow.
Measure your cubit to the nearest inch.
3.
Use your cubit and thumb measurements to estimate each length in inches.
length of your math book
4.
width of your desk
5.
height of the closet door
6.
Analyze Find an object in your classroom. Use your cubit and thumb measurements to
7.
estimate the length of the object in inches.
Explore It Describe a situation where it would be useful to estimate using body measures
8.
and a situation where you would want to use a standard measure. Explain your reasoning.

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