One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions – Grace M. Hopper
Measuring is as old as man. People always have measured things; distance, length, weight. Measuring has become so easy that we don’t even think of the act. This simple act has gone through an evolution. Finding a standard measurement was difficult for our ancestors in the very beginning.
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One of the earliest methods of measuring is the use of the human body. Africans measured things differently with body parts and sometimes with objects or farm tools. In Igbo, the length of the middle part of an average person’s index finger is called Ntaji and is equivalent to twenty millimetres in western measurement standard. The Yorubas measure litres of water in garawas, and oil in Ìgò which means bottle.