From feets to fathoms Lab Report

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

HYPOTHESIS: I think that it is very important to have a metric system that is common or that you can use in all nations. Instead of having miles in the US and kilometers in Europe people should found a metric/measuring system which is simple and it is widely used all over the world. Using body parts instead of a meter stick it’s harder because you don’t precisely know where it’s half. And maybe you can end up have a small part of your body (depending on measurement) out. I think that using body parts makes it harder to calculated the exact distance.

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. 

DATA ANALYSIS:

(GRAPH) from home

Object	Measure-ment Type	Measure-ment #1	Measure-ment #2	Measure-ment #3	Average	Actual Measurement
Toothpick	Fingernail	7	///	///	///	6.5 cm
Book	Palm	5	///	///	///	30 cm
Room	Feet	26.5	///	///	///	510 cm
Bed	English Yard	2	///	///	///	200 cm
Crayon box	Fingernail	8	///	///	///	10 cm
Table	Span	6	///	///	///	93 cm

(GRAPH) at school

Object	Measure-ment Type	Measure-ment #1	Measure-ment #2	Measure-ment #3	Average	Actual Measurement
Peep	fingernail	n/a	14 cm	15 cm	14.5 cm	14 cm
Book	palm	36 cm	36 cm	32 cm	34.6 cm	33 cm
Hallway	feet	n/a	11.6 m	11.02 m	11.2 m	10 m
Whiteboard	cubit	n/a	280 cm	340 cm	255 cm	253 cm
Crayon box	fingernail	6 ½ cm	7 cm	7 cm	6.83 cm	7 cm
Desk/table	feet	n/a	(calculated wrongly)	(calculated wrongly)	???	137 cm

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? 

Our averages, as well as the actual distance were similar to the calculated centimeters. The difference from each other’s calculated distance wasn’t bigger or smaller than two centimeters. I noticed that a few of the measurements were very similar to each other so you could use both. For example the pace and the English yard both end up being more or less 1 meter. Span and foot are also quite similar.

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.

                                                                              

The old English forms of measurements would/can give you a general idea of how long the distance can be, but it’s not that precise. Meanwhile a meter stick is much more detailed, and it can also give you millimeters. The importance of having an international measuring system is high. If we all have a measuring system that it’s widely know and used, each person from the other side of the world can use the same system and it would also be easier when you talk about it!

My hypothesis was correct, because now that I am capable to understand. Old English measurements are not as detailed, and the importance of an International measuring system is very high.

The objects easiest to measure were the once which measurement was little (fingernail) because you have more chance that another could fit. Meanwhile the yard (and other big measurements types), if you measured it on a whiteboard it would be hard to have two whole ones, though if you use the palm the probability of this happening is lower.

My favorite type of measurements from all of them is the span, even though we didn’t use it, I think that from all it’s the most accurate one.

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? 

Some errors my partner and I did was to convert each measurement into centimeters, even though we could have done it, this additional step made it harder.