List of human-based units of measure
This is a list of units of measure based on human body parts or the attributes or abilities of humans. It does not include derived units further unless they are also themselves human-based. These units are thus considered to be human scale and anthropocentric.
Area
- Quinaria - the cross-sectional area of a pipe created from a flat sheet of lead 5 digits wide
- Stremma - the amount of land a person can plow in a day
Length
- Ald - the distance between a man's outstretched arms
- Assbā - Arabic finger
- Beard-second - the length a beard grows in a second
- Condylos - middle joint of finger
- Cun - width of the human thumb, at the knuckle
- Dactylos - Ancient Roman finger breadth
- Digit - length of a human finger
- Etzba - fingerbreadth
- Fathom - the distance between the fingertips of a man's outstretched arms
- Finger
- Fistmele - the measure of a clenched hand with the thumb extended
- Gradus - Ancient Roman step
- Hand - breadth of a male human hand
- League - the distance a person can walk in an hour (by one definition)
- Lichas - thumb length
- Orgyia - Ancient Greek fathom
- Parasang - the distance an infantryman could march in a predefined period of time
- Pygmē - distance from elbow to base of fingers
- Sazhen - Russian fathom
- Shaftment - width of the fist and outstretched thumb
- Smoot - Oliver R. Smoot's height in October 1958
- Span - width of a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the pinky
- Spithamē - Ancient Greek span
- Yard
- Zeret - Biblical span
Paces
- Haploun bēma - Ancient Greek single pace
- Orgye - Arabic pace
- Pace - a full stride, from heel to heel
- Passus - the pace step of a single legionary
Ells
Cubits
Palms
Inches
- Duym - Tatar thumb/inch
- Inch - length of the thumb (by some definitions)
- Uncia - Roman inch
- Zoll - German inch
Feet
Loudness
Mass
- Picul - the weight a person can carry
Time
- Nimesha - the time it takes for a person to blink
- Paramanu - interval of blinking in humans
Volume
Miscellaneous
See also