...sometimes a free one, to give the sense of the name intended. The measurements used are —"length," the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the skin of the tail, taken with the animal laid on its back on the scale; "tail vertebrae," taken with...

...standards such as "the sum of the length of the left feet of the first 16 men out of church on Sunday," or "the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the thumb." Some rulers even capitalized on the lack of standards by using overgenerous measures for the collection...

...Stewart, in his book, Some Textual Difficulties in Shakespeare, Yale University Press, 1914, says, p. 86: 'A "clothier's yard" does not refer to a particular...strength to force the bow out the full length of the arm. . . . An archer of size and strength had to have an arrow of such length that he could use it in this...

...thumb — and the original inch was the distance of three barleycorns placed end to end. The yard was the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the thumb. The mile goes back to a thousand paces of the Romans, who considered a pace to be two steps — about...

...thumb — and the original inch was the distance of three barleycorns placed end to end. The yard was the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the thumb. The mile goes back to a thousand paces of the Romans, who considered a pace to be two steps — about...

...and nail. The association of the yard with the "gird" or circumference of a person's waist or with the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the thumb of Henry I are probably standardizing actions, since several yards were in use in Great Britain. The...

...are based on various familiar human lengths (the foot is the length of a typical human foot; the yard is the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of an extended finger). Scientists use the meter, an international standard unit that was originally defined...

...The yard (3 feet) was the name of a 3 -foot measuring stick. Another ("natural") definition of yard is the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the middle finger of the outstretched arm. The fathom (6 feet) is equal to the total span from one fingertip...