Over my decades of writing this blog, I have learned a number of useful things.
Some of them are useful in everyday life, rather than being strictly emergency or self-defence skills.
One example I often use is the technique of counting on finger bones rather than fingers. Using this method it is possible to count to twelve with one hand, or to 72 or 156 using both.
Somewhere along the line I learnt the trick of counting in fours.
I used to group things into threes when counting. Fours is more efficient, and it is easy to group fours into larger groups of twelve, sixteen or twenty for a quick total.
The count of larger groupings may be combined with the finger bone counting method. Eight twenties and three left? 163.
Some readers may have noticed that in my later writings I have tried to utilize anthropic measurements when this is clearer.
“Three body lengths” distance is much easier to visualize than six metres, seven yards or 21 feet.
Similarly, instructing someone to place their feet two foot-lengths or a shoulder-width apart compensates for varying body sizes, so more useful than giving an exact value in inches, feet, yards, centimetres or metres.
Today’s idea derives from my fictional measuring system, which was eventually used in my novel “Anatopismo”.
In this system there was a sub-unit called the “vingt” that was a sixth of a standardized cubit, or a twentieth of a standard double pace.
Only recently did it occur to me that the vingt was very close to the width of a human palm.
Palms
Many cultures have used units of measure based on or named after the palm. Some are based on the palm width, others on the hand length.
In this article, “palm” should be understood to refer to palm width.
Logically enough, the palm is often subdivided into four “digits” (finger breadths).
Some definitions of the palm are as being the width of four digits, rather than the width of the palm.
What is interesting is how the palm width correlates with a number of other body-based units of measure.
As alluded to above, a cubit is around six palms. A double pace is around 20 palms, so a single pace is around ten palms.
A cubit approximates a shoulder-width, so a shoulder width is approximately six palms or 24 finger-breadths.
Two cubits, or twelve palms is approximately the distance from the finger tips to the nose if you hold your hand out to the side. This is approximately a yard, and cloth was sometimes measured out using this method. Hence the term “clothyard”. 13 palms, or two cubits and a palm is about a metre. Since most of us are under six foot tall, these “yards” and “metres” will be a little short.
Four cubits, or 24 palms, is approximate to an arm-span (approximately a fathom), which can be taken as equivalent to a body-length. An arm-span is a handy way to measure cordage.
Use your quick maths tricks here.
To multiply by six, triple and double the result.
Multiply by 24, triple and double three times (keeping count on your finger bones!). Multiply by 20, double and add a nought, and so on.
A seconds pendulum is about 99 cm. If you need to time something, use a cord half a digit less than half an arm-span plus a palm long.
I am not suggesting you throw away your tape measures and rulers.
Knowing the relationship between digits, palm widths and cubits can provide you with a useful “personal approximating” system.
If you are consistent with whose hand you use and how you measure, these units can have an acceptable level of accuracy.
If using this system to make something, I suggest you remember the maxim of “measure twice and cut once”. In practice, measure several times, and err on the side of caution. Trimming down is easier than adding material back!
Where across the palm should you use for measuring?
Personally, I go across where the fingers join the palm, from the outside of the bottom joint of the first finger to the outside of the bottom joint of the little finger. It is easier to measure in digits on this line too.
A palm width is approximately three inches or 7.5 cm. A digit is therefore approximately three-quarters of an inch, or 18-20 mm.
My palm is about 83 mm or 3.25 inches, making my average digit a shade under 21 mm. I am 1.8 metres tall, which makes me more than two palms under 24.
Like I have already said, this is an approximation system.
Paces
Paces are more useful for longer horizontal distances.
A double pace, by the above, is 20 palms or three and a third cubits.
More usefully, this means ten cubits are three double paces.
Five body-lengths is six double paces.
Some older Russian Mosin-Nagant rifles may be found with sights graduated in arshin.
Arshin is defined as the distance from the shoulder to fingertips, but is often treated as being a single pace. Interestingly, that is one and a half cubits, which would make a double pace three cubits.
Actual paces are very variable, depending on speed, terrain, body size, age, disability, fatigue and other factors.
My current double pace is about 1.17 metres/46 inches, which is about 14 to 15 palms, depending what value of palm I use.
I have to walk with a cane these days.
I tried measuring between the points my walking cane contacted the ground, and got a value of about 33 inches/ 83 cm (10 palms), which shows how much a pace can vary.
Over any distance, my double pace probably averages around two cubits, which is a convenient value.