Comments on: My yard is not an option.

Question: My yard is not an option.

carsonb — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:53:46 -0800

What are some common household objects that can be used as standard measures?

I forgot the size of a television I own, and it's been bugging me. And now that I think about it, there's about a zillion things I'd like to measure around my house. But I don't have a tape measure, and I can't be counted on to get one any time soon. So if I go to my pantry/closet/cupboard/bookcase/and on, what stuff inside is exactly 1 foot long? 6 inches? 1 decimeter? 1cm? etc?

Household instruments good for measurements other than length welcome as well.

By: Phire

Phire — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:57:30 -0800

you know a piece of paper is 8.5" by 11", so... not very conventional, but it'll give you an approximation.

By: gnutron

gnutron — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:57:36 -0800

notebook or typing paper is generally 8.5" x 11"

By: Science!

Science! — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:01:35 -0800

A 9" cake pan is 9" in diameter, a 12" loaf pan is 12" in length. We're really gonna need to know what you have available. Oh, a sheet of paper (in the US) is usually 8.5X11", I measure tons of stuff just knowing that.

By: JulianDay

JulianDay — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:05:46 -0800

A dollar bill is 6" long (well, actually about 6 1/8").

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:06:10 -0800

A 2 liter bottle of soda is almost exactly 1 foot long. And a DVD, and VHS are both 7' long. I do have a tape measure.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:07:06 -0800

oops, " not '.

By: champthom

champthom — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:07:44 -0800

A nickel weights exactly 5 g, and is 2 cm in diameter.

And it only costs 5 cents!

By: b33j

b33j — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:09:59 -0800

You could print off this printable tape measure.

By: b33j

b33j — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:11:53 -0800

And then you could measure body parts. For example, on me, one foot is (contrary to popular belief) from about the middle of my palm to the inside of my elbow. My arms outstretched is just over 5ft (though I don't know how much by).

By: carsonb

carsonb — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:12:42 -0800

Thanks, Science!

I know what a cake pan is, but I didn't know that a common size for them is 9". If I have a cake pan that looks smaller than a foot in diameter to me, can I assume it's a 9" cake pan? Or does it depend on brand or what part of the world it was made in or whatever?

I'll try to clarify my question a little: What are some household objects that, no matter brand or bought from, are standard sizes? And more specifically, which of those products can be used as standard measurements?

By: katemonster

katemonster — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:13:05 -0800

If you fold an 8.5x11 piece of paper so that it makes a right triangle, the long side of the triangle = 12.02 inches. Entirely unoriginal -- credit to lifehacker on this one.

By: winston

winston — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:35:41 -0800

Your armspan (fingertip to fingertip) is probably almost exactly your height (and if it's not, it's close enough for most purposes).

I'm six feet tall and my armspan is exactly six feet and my reach (to my fingertip when I reach my hand straight up with my feet flat on the floor) is exactly eight feet. These nice round numbers have been handy for me. But even if it's an odd number for you, it's a measuring stick you'll always have with you.

Pull out a ruler and see if any of your fingers have nice round measurements (e.g. a finger that's half an inch wide, two adjacent fingers that are an inch wide when held together, a finger that's exactly three inches long), or the length or width of your hand. How long is your foot? or elbow-to-fingertip? etc.

By: winston

winston — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:41:52 -0800

A CD case is about five by five-and-a-half inches. (Actually 4-15/16 x 5 9/16)

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:46:59 -0800

The size of your TV is almost certainly in the model number, at the start, in inches.

(for a tube TV it's often the size of the tube inside, not the screen itself)

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:48:57 -0800

a. get a tape measure - so useful!
b. know your hand span

Using my tape measure, here are some common objects:
CD jewel case: spine = 5" other side = 5.5"
CD diameter: just shy of 5"
US soda pop can: 4.75" tall
AA battery: just shy of 2" long
mass market paperback: 7" tall
cans, eg of soup and beans, are all within a mm of 4.5" tall
roll of paper towels: 10.75" long

Do you have any paper products in their original packaging? Eg business envelopes will say the dimensions on the outside of the box.

Do you have any photos? They come in standard sizes like 4"x6" and 5"x7".

By: samh23

samh23 — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:06:16 -0800

A standard size coffee mug is usually about 1 cup.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:19:48 -0800

A string is any length you want. Measure your TV, knot the string or color code some marks on it, put it in your pocket and you can measure it at work, or in the fabric store,or in the hardware store, or in the post office, etc.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:45:21 -0800

I have always been a fan of the 8.5x11 triangle trick, and have used it more than once, but I strongly second the notion of just measuring your own hand span, and then MEMORIZING it the way you memorize your own shoe size. When's the last time you checked THAT?

Nothing will ever be more at hand than your own hand. You'll always have it with you to measure stuff with and you'll impress everyone around with your accurate "guesses".

(Mine's a puny but conveniently round nine inches, but if yours is odd, like 10.133, it's still not hard to memorize the first ten multiples, either. It's your hand, dammit. Show some love.)

By: wallaby

wallaby — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:30:14 -0800

I know what a cake pan is, but I didn't know that a common size for them is 9". If I have a cake pan that looks smaller than a foot in diameter to me, can I assume it's a 9" cake pan? Or does it depend on brand or what part of the world it was made in or whatever?

You're right, there are different cake pans. This is where you can use that 8.5x11 sheet of paper (or A4, depending where you are). Hold the short end of the paper across the diameter of the pan. If it comes up a little short, then you've got a nine inch pan.

By: rongorongo

rongorongo — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 03:45:28 -0800

A hand held at arm's length with the fingers outstretched is equivalent to approximately 20 degrees arc. 15 degrees if you hold your fingers together. An upright fist gives you about 10 degrees of elevation. Your small finger is one degree.

Apropos paper folding: standard ISO paper sizes like A4 always maintain the same height to width ratio when they are folded in half: 1 to the square root of 2. This is not entirely relevant for your question because it means that starting with an A4 sheet of paper you can fold it in half to get the size of a postcard, multiply it by 16 to give you the size of a flip chart or do various other operations to give you anything from an envelope to a playing card.

By: amtho

amtho — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:22:31 -0800

You might be able to get a less-precise measurement using the length of your foot, derived from your shoe size (the length of a barleycorn, used in the calculation, is also given on that page).

By: anagrama

anagrama — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:23:11 -0800

I tend to use an LP sleeve (12 inches) or single (7 inches) as a handy rough-reckoner.

By: amtho

amtho — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:25:39 -0800

Also: standard #10 business envelopes - which hold an 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper folded into thirds and were mentioned above - are 4-1/8 x 9-1/2 inches. These might be handier for holding and carrying around the house, and as a bonus you get to use your junk mail for something practical.

By: plinth

plinth — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 05:37:16 -0800

Units of extension: Three barley corns to an inch, right? (original definition of an inch)
Units of weight: A pint's a pound, all the world around.
Units of liquid volume: 20 drops per ml

For most other measurements in units of extension, I've got my hand span, arm span, stride and foot length calibrated. I also have a pretty solid sense of counting of seconds accurate +/- 10%.

I've always found archaic units of measurement fairly entertaining. When I taught, I used to assign 7^th grade students units of measure to research . Surprisingly, a lot of the kids enjoyed it. Mostly because they were so screwy. Like gill - not so much that 1/4 pint is screwy, just that it was a drink size served in a noggin.

By: pinksoftsoap

pinksoftsoap — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:47:56 -0800

If you hold your arms straight out to the side, the length from fingertip to fingertip equals your height. This works out great if you're roughly 6 feet and you're measuring a room.

By: Leon

Leon — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:48:06 -0800

Units of weight: A pint's a pound, all the world around.

Er... the US pint is 17g heavy, the Imperial pint is way off.

However, a litre of water weighs exactly one kilogramme, by definition.

The credit card in your pocket is 85.60mm × 53.98mm (3.370" × 2.125"). Who thinks up these standards?

Wikipedia article on strange units of Measurement.

By: Monkey0nCrack

Monkey0nCrack — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 08:07:52 -0800

Pint being a pound - isn't that the cost of a pint of ale?

A gallon of water weighs about 8.33 pounds, Milk is about 8.5, depending on skim, whole or 2%.

By: ducktape

ducktape — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:44:37 -0800

I've measured my body parts for measuring tools.

Index finger, foot (with shoe on), length from middle finger to elbow, arm to other arm arcoss the body, foot up to knee, and of course total body height.
Most of these let me make an approximate estimate in almost any situation.

By: hank

hank — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 10:45:00 -0800

In one nanosecond, electricity travels approximately a foot in a wire. Admiral Grace Hopper was famous for handing out strands of "telephone wire nanoseconds" to her audience whenever she lectured about technology.
http://computing-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/nanosecond

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 11:18:26 -0800

winston writes "Your armspan (fingertip to fingertip) is probably almost exactly your height (and if it's not, it's close enough for most purposes). "

You'll want to check this, mine is off by 6 inches (ya, they call me the ape man).

plinth writes "Units of weight: A pint's a pound, all the world around."

Despite the well knowness of this phrase it's not close to being true.

By: plinth

plinth — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:47:23 -0800

For rule of thumb measurements, "a pint's a pound" is as close as you will need it to be (ie, it fits well with using hand-spans, shoe lengths, arm-spans, etc, all of which will be close, but less accurate than using a specific measuring instrument).

Pedants rule, OK. Or more precisely, exhibit certain of the conventional trappings of leadership.

By: ASM

ASM — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:03:33 -0800

A standard sized can of canned food you'd find in your pantry weighs one pound.

By: teleri025

teleri025 — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:13:45 -0800

In theory (at least according to my granny) a yard is the distance between the center of your chest and your fingertips with your arm extended.

For measuring dry ingredients, a tablespoon of salt/pepper/whatever is about the size of a quarter when poured into your hand. A teaspoon is about the size of a nickel.

Cake pans can also be 8" in diameter.

By: platinum

platinum — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:02:53 -0800

Inspired by this post I just pulled out a ruler and discovered I've been carrying around a wealth of pretty reliable measurements just in my right hand!

1/4 inch = width of my pinky nail
1/2 inch = width of my index finger
1 inch = width of my first 2 fingers
2 inches = length of my pinky finger
3 inches = width of my palm
4 inches = length of my thumb to the wrist
5 inches = length of my pinky to the wrist
6 inches = span of index finger and thumb
7 inches = span of middle finger and thumb
8 inches = span of pinky and thumb
9 inches = length of elbow to wrist
12 inches = length of elbow to top of palm

My hands are pretty small so of course YMMV. I've always been terrible at estimating measurements, so these will be incredibly handy - as long as I can remember them!

By: heatherann

heatherann — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:30:38 -0800

Bizarre. You people just inspired me to measure the span of my hand, and then I got curious about something else. I play piano, so my hand knows how to position itself to correctly to play an octave. So how far is that? Conveniently, my hand remembers an octave as being 6 inches.

Forget measuring things in feet. I'm measuring in octaves from now on.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 08:04:02 -0800

So an octave on any keyboard is 6 inches? Or is that measurement unique to your hand/the piano you play?

By: attercoppe

attercoppe — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:52:40 -0800

"pint's a pound" - I was always under the impression that this refers to the fact that both a pint and a pound contain 16 ounces. One's fluid volume, one's weight, but still.