Liz wrote:
I use the fingers to nose measurement for a yard - and fingers to nose
turned away for the metric measurement.
Turning my head away seems to give me approximately the extra 3inches!!
Looking straight ahead, nose to fingertip is only 31.5 inches on my small
body.
I have to turn my head to get a full yard measure. Guess I need to fold the
fabric back over my fingers and down to where they attatch to hand to get a
meter measurement.
If I recollect correctly, I believe it was also King Henry whose foot
measured 12 inches.
Many years ago, when I was teaching mentally handicapped, I tried to give
them some concept of various measurements by asking them to hold their hands
apart at a distance of an inch, a foot, a yard.
One teenage boy had no idea of how large a foot was so I suggested that he
look at his own foot. One could see the dawn breaking over his face. He
said he had never thought the word for measurement and that for his own foot
as having any relationship.
I think that as most people learn to measure when they are very young,
they do not relate a foot to their feet any more than we relate a yard to a
lawn or barnyard.
( My Webster says that a yard - measure- is from AngloSaxon 'gyrd or gierd',
a rod or staff; whereas a yard-enclosure- is from AS 'geard'.
Louise in Central Virginia
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