Generic length measurements in antiquity

·         Elbow: It is a unit of measurement very mentioned in the Bible and one of the first employees in antiquity, when man used parts of his body to make measurements.

·         Hand: This measure is equivalent to the width of the hand.

·         Foot: The foot originally represented the length of a human foot although this unit of measurement was transformed over time into the equivalent of 12 inches in the Anglo-Saxon system.

·         Handspan: is the measurement between the tip of the thumb and the little finger with the extended hand.

·         Breaststroke: this measurement results from extending both arms.

·         Cable: equivalent to about 200 meters and was used to measure the distance between two objects that were not too far away.

·         Inch: As its name suggests, this measure used to correspond to the width of the thumb. Today is equivalent to 2.54 cm. It is an English measure that is widely used today and that is widely used in archaeology. We usually rely on an inch to cm converter to avoid mistakes when we are working with these two types of measurements.

·         Step: it is the resulting measurement between one foot and another when taking a step.

·         Mile: equivalent to about 1000 steps and derives from the expression mille passuum.

The units of measure of foot, handspan and step are taught in the first year of primary education, in the first trimester. It is necessary to teach these units of measurement to students through an active methodology so they can experience it themselves. In this way students acquire this knowledge in a useful way so they can use it on many occasions.