Wacky Units (part 1)

Have you ever heard of such phrases as “The newborn got its first score; it was a perfect ten” (APGAR) or “I stood next to him at an arm’s length” (very close), “He lost his 21 grams” (lost his life)? How many of you ever wondered where these terms come from and what do we really mean by using them. Today’s topic is old measurement units and their acceptance in our lives after the metric system took over. First of all let’s get one thing straight: not everyone is using our way of measuring things (grams, kilometers). These terms are specific to a system called metric (the name is very suggestive). It was first put in place in France and it uses decimals to measure things. It came as an alternative, which was quickly adopted by most countries; to the Imperial Units (this system is British and should not come as a surprise to anyone).

There are many other systems to measure things but let’s take a look at some old units, and let’s have a laugh at some wacky names they used in the old times.

Amber – no this does not refer to the girl working at the cubicle next to you; this was an unit of volume and it measured about 140 liters. Amber is huge J

Amphora – yes, it was some sort of a vase. It was discovered to measure (based on the findings of the historians) around 38 liters – if you are Greek – and only 25 if Roman; seems someone is skinflint…

Balthazar – this is my favorite; this unit measures 12 liters and it was used for wine!

Butcher – I know you think you know this one but in fact this is a unit for measuring beer; it was used Down Under…. And guess what, it’s a glass.

Devil’s Dozen – means a quantity equal to 13 units. Its name is related to the fact that 13 is a bad luck number

Fanthom – whether you are at the Opera or not, the fanthom measures aprox. 1,8 meters. The word derives from English and it means “fæthm” – stretched arms

This is all for now. Hope you discovered new things today. Stay tuned for the next episode.