Body Measurements

I'm going to have to go back almost two months to try to recall this particular Thursday. If I remember correctly, Susan had us use our fingers, hands, arms and other body parts to practically plant seeds that had instructions in metric (or imperial?) measurements. Brandon and I chose I forget which plant but we used rough approximations on our bodies to hypothetically plant the seeds. For example - if the instruction said to plant them in one-inch wide sections, we said the middle joint of our thumbs to the top was about an inch. As I'm reflecting on it now, I'm wondering how we could have done this without having the initial knowledge of what an inch is. Even in the table provided, it lists our body measurements in rough approximations to measurements we already know/have knowledge of. I know this is 450 and not 442 but I'm wondering now how things were standardized by Babylonians during their time. It's not like everyone's feet or arms were the same size, but then again I guess since their measurements were for practical, personal use it was only necessary for them to know what something measured in as. I remember my mom using her hands a lot to measure stuff like furniture; only she needed to know how many of her hands it was because she was taking the measurement and going to the store to buy the appropriate item. Or she would do it with fabric and then go to the store and buy the appropriate length - again, it was an extremely customized and personalized measurement tool. Humans have always been innovative - this is a given. 

The most enjoyable part of the class for me was when we did the sundial exercise as a class. Often, I end up in my own thoughts and that's exactly what happened as I was observing the shadow made by the long stick we were using. I was trying to figure out the length of the shadow in relation to the object due to the position of the sun. In Islam, we have five daily prayers (our day goes from sunset to sunset so technically the night comes before the day). The prayers are spread out during different parts of the day: for example one is to be prayed from about the time the sky starts to brighten (the sun is 15-18 degrees below the horizon) and the time for this prayer cuts off as soon as the sun starts to rise about the horizon. Another one is prayed after the sun passes the zenith. One prayer is prayed from when the height of the shadow of an object is the same height and this prayer's time cuts off at sunset. I was so captivated by the length of the shadow because I was trying to figure out if it's length was greater than it's height. I also knew that the sun had not passed the zenith up until that point (our inquiry classes are in the morning and the sun passes the zenith around 12pm-1pm). Honestly, I was so absorbed in this that at one point I walked to the other side of the circle, picked up a decently sized branch and started trying to measure the length of its shadow by marking the place where its shadow stopped and then comparing it to the height of the branch.

I think I went off on a tangent but I recall that day for that specific experience of mine and so I felt important to discuss and share. Thank you for reading!