Ancient Weight and Measures

Ancient Weight and Measures
Measurement, fundamental in science, had had its origin in trade and construction. The values of weights and measures in the Ancient East are known either from the actual instruments or from other sources, units of the same name differing considerably in value from place to place.

The oldest known stone weights are from a Sumerian temple at Lagash (about 3000 BC), each inscribed, “1 mana, Dudu High priests,” – in our scale about one ounce.

A later Assyria scale included the shekel, the mana = 60 shekels (about 1.1 lb.), and the talent = 60 mana.

The early Sumerian carpenters used a scale of digits equaling 0.65 inch.

The Babylonian cubit (form-arm) was 20.6 inches in our measure, and was divided into 30 digits.

The higher units were sexagesimal, ending in a parasang, or league, of about 3.5 English miles.

The Egyptian used decimal systems of weights and measures. The largest unit of weight, for measuring wheat, was about two pounds.

The cubit of the Pyramid Age, nearly the same length as the Babylonian cubit, was divided into hundredths.

But apparently for the convenience of workmen, the scale was usually marked also approximately into 7 palms, a palm being 4 digits.

The two systems were incommensurate, like our yard and meter.
Ancient Weight and Measures

A brief history of Celsius

A brief history of Celsius
In modern science Celsius is a temperature scale which zero degrees is the freezing points of water and 100 degrees is the boiling point. Temperature in this scale is generally denoted by °C or C alone.

The Celsius scale is widely known as the centigrade scale because it is divided into 100 degrees. It is named for the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, who established the scale in 1742.

Anders Celsius was born in Uppsala. His grandfathers were both professors in Uppsala: mathematician and astronomer. His father was a professor in astronomy. He is very talented in mathematics from the early age, was appointed professor in astronomy in 1730.

During student times he became engaged in general problem of weights and measures, including temperature measurements. Anders Celsius should be recognized as the first to perform and publish careful experiments aiming at the definition of an international temperature scale on scientific grounds. He determined the dependence of the boiling of water with atmospheric pressure (in excellence agreement with modern data). He further gave a rule the determination of the boiling point if the barometric pressure deviates from a certain standard pressure.

Celsius published most of his work in publications of the Royal Society of Sciences and in Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
A brief history of Celsius