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  • From: <tladatsi AT charter.net>
  • To: <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Cubits
  • Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 0:30:01 -0400

Almost all traditional units of measurement are rather
imprecise by modern standards. In the English system a
yard is the distance from the nose to the end of the thumb
(with the neck straight). A fathom is the length of rope
from hand to hand. A mile is 1,000 double strides (about 5
feet) of a Roman legionnaire. The differences between
individuals is small compared to over imprecision of the
project. If two sailors are measuring the distance to
bottom of a shoal, if there is a few inches difference
between their respective fathoms, it is lost in the
changing tides and the pitch of the boat. If someone is
buying silk from a mercer and serge de Nimes from a second
mercer, each at a different price per yard, the difference
lengths of their respective arms is not important.

Yigal is of course that each individual arkwright would
measure 300 cubits somewhat differently if they were
building a chest / box / ark. However, so long as only one
master arkwright is doing the measuring it does not matter.
Even if one side of the ark is a few barleycorns (1/3rd of
an inch) longer it has no impact on its performance.
Nowadays we find this sort intuitive engineering
unacceptable but until rather recently it was the norm.


Jack Tladatsi




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