As if everything is very easy, the inch measurement unit, which causes us to experience length measurement confusion, is used in former colonial countries such as the United Kingdom and the USA. Alright; What exactly is an inch, how is it calculated? The history of the inch has extremely unusual details, let’s take a closer look.
You are browsing a shopping site and let’s say you are looking at a smartphone, tablet, computer or television. The computer is 15 inches, the television is 50 inches. OK, what do they mean? Since the starting point of the technology is the United States in general, the screen dimensions are also the unit of length used in this country. displayed in inches. Additional information, screen sizes are calculated over the diagonal length.
Alright; What is this inch, how is it calculated? To the answer to the question of what is an inch in our daily life we don’t need it because we use the metric system like many normal countries. However, this system is used in the United Kingdom and former British colonial countries. inch history, It has many extraordinary details that we would be surprised to hear today. Let’s take a closer look at this unusual measuring system and its story.
What is an inch, how did it come about, how many cm is 1 inch?
What is an inch?
The inch is used in the countries of the United Kingdom and former British colonial countries such as the United States. is a unit of length measurement. The word inch is Latin for 1/12 of everything. unitia comes from the word This different length and weight measurement system, including the inch unit, is also referred to by names such as British units and imperial units.
In the system of measuring length and weight, called British or imperial units, different units of length and weight measurement such as inches, feet or feet, yards, gallons, pounds are used. Since the center of technology is countries that use these units of measurement, such as the USA. specifying screen sizes like this It has become a kind of habit.
The origin story of the inch unit:
We first encounter the inch length measurement unit in a book written in the 7th century, but that period It is not known exactly what length it refers to. Even if there is no source, maybe that period was actually calculated as the length of the queen’s toe, but again, this definition may be just a rumor.
We learn about the length of inch in 1150 for the first time. During this period, King David I was 1 inch tall. the length of a man’s thumb holding a nail determined as much. In the following years, to make the length expressed by the unit a little more specific, the thumb lengths of three men with small, medium and large thumbs were measured side by side and the obtained value was divided into three.
In the early 14th century, King Edward II got involved and slightly changed the measurement system. Accordingly, 1 inch longitudinally placed end-to-end It was the length of 3 round barley grains. On some dates and regions, 1 inch has also been calculated to be 12 poppy seeds added longitudinally and end-to-end.
1 inch is how many cm?
The inch length unit, which has been tried to be calculated for centuries over different lengths such as the stem of the pear, the litter of the grape, the queen’s finger, It took its final form in 1959. The United States and the United Kingdom officially defined the length of 1 inch as 25.4 millimeters, or 2.54 centimeters, in 1959.
The international unit of inch is written in English as inches, in short. In abbreviations, single quotes are used for feet and double quotes are used for inches. 10′ means 10 feet, 10′ means 10 inches. Since 1 inch is 2.54 cm, 10 inches is 25.4 cm long. You can calculate it yourself by multiplying all the measurements in this way, or you can use the calculation tool here.
Other units of measurement used with inches:
The measurement system used in the United Kingdom and the former British colony of the United States does not consist only of inches. Along with inches, feet, yards, gallons, and pounds are also used. The story of these units of measurement used is also details as interesting as the inch history contains.
Fit or English feet, as you know, means feet. So the unit of feet, represents the foot length. About 15.3% of human height is foot length. For many years this unit of measurement was used in Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome.
Yard unit, King Henry I. length between nose and thumb or claimed to be the length of the waist circumference. Gallon comes from the French word jalon, meaning bowl.
The story of the pound or pound unit is even more interesting. This unit is used to measure the weight of agricultural products in the United States, while in England to measure the weight of mines was used. So much so that the pound, which is still the British currency today, denotes the value of 1 pound of silver.
Why are different units of measurement used in the world?
It would not be wrong to say that the use of units of measure is a sign of strength, just like the use of language. Just as before the establishment of the Turkish Republic a different language like Ottoman Turkish and if we use different measurement units such as weighbridge, drawbar, batman, okka, dirham, different measurement units in the world are also spread and used under the control of the main power.
We can say that the units of measurement needed for length and weight during the powerful periods of the Kingdom of England were arranged according to the king’s whim. British colonial countries other than the main kingdom As they were under the power of the king, they had to accept both the English language and other cultural and scientific values such as units of measurement.
What we use today The metric system was invented in France in 1795. It would not be wrong to think that this system, in which meters for length and kilograms for weight, was used in order not to fall under the influence of the powerful Kingdom of England. Surprisingly, the US actually adopted the metric system in 1866, but the imperial system is officially used.
What we see in the screen size values or the length of foreign origin clothes What is an inch and how is it calculated? We answered the question and inch history We told his story full of interesting details. We are hoping for the days when we will all use the metric system together in the near future.