Builder's Old Measurement

Have you ever heard of a builder's measurement? Basically, it's a way for builders to figure out how much wood they need to make a house or building.

Now, imagine you have a toy house that you want to build. You need to figure out how long and wide the walls need to be, right? Builders use something called "old measurement" to do this.

Old measurement is a way of measuring things that was invented a long time ago in England, where builders used their own bodies as measuring tools. They didn't have rulers or measuring tapes like we do today!

So, builders back then would use their feet to measure things. They would take their biggest foot and use it to measure one length of a wall. Then, they would use their other foot to measure another length of the wall.

But here's the tricky part - not all people have the same size feet! So, they had to come up with a standard measurement for a foot. They decided that one foot would be equal to 12 inches, which is about the length of a big carrot or a ruler.

Then, they used this same idea to come up with other measurements. For example, four inches was about the width of a human hand. And three feet was about the length of a big stride when walking.

So, when a builder says they need "two lengths and a bit" of wood, they mean they need two lengths of wood measured with their feet plus a little extra. This might sound confusing, but it worked well for builders hundreds of years ago and some still use it today!