I am a measurement that uses a finger. I was used in ancient egypt. I am?
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Answer:
Ancient Egyptians didn't measure things using centimetres and metres. They used cubits, spans and fingers. A cubit is the measurement from the tip of your longest finger to the bottom of your elbow. A palm is the distance across your palm.
About 4000 years ago the ancient Egyptians started building large pyramidal structures as
burial places for their kings. The most impressive of these pyramids is the great pyramid
of Cheops (Khufu) on the Giza plateau just outside of present day Cairo. It had an
original height of H=146.59m (280 royal cubits) and a base side-length of
L=230.35m(440 royal cubits). The cubit had a length of 52.5cm(20.7inches) and
supposedly represents the distance from a man’s elbow to the tip of his middle finger. For
the construction of all Egyptian pyramids the cubit was the basic unit of length. A very
important aspect of pyramid construction was the accurate determination of the slope of a
surface relative to the horizontal. This was made possible via measurements using a
plumb-bob level and a right angled square combined into a single instrument as shown-
It is our purpose here to show how this instrument was used to measure slopes in pyramid
construction both at the stone quarries and during the actual placement of the stones at
the pyramid site.
Our starting point for understanding the functioning of the Egyptian level-square, is to
first discuss how the ancient Egyptians measured angles. Unlike in later centuries, they
did not measure angles directly but rather used the concept of a slope which is equivalent
to the tangent of an angle. Their angle related measure was the seked. It is defined as the
ratio of two lengths of the sides of a right triangle taken in a certain way as shown in the
following picture-