1. What is meant by measurement?

Measurement is the process of assigning a number to an attribute such as height, weight, length, width, volume, speed , time etc, based on a standardized system. Each attribute has one or more standardized unit of measurement. Measurements act as labels which make those values more useful in terms of details.

2. Why are measurements important?

Measurements are a very important part of our daily life. When we say quantity of something, we are actually trying to find out ‘how much’ it has. We need to find out measures like length, weight, volume, time or temperature of things to be able to express their quantity or amount in a suitable way.

3. How did people use to take measurements in olden days?

In olden days, the length of a foot, the width of a finger and the distance of a step were commonly used as different units of measurement. They used stones of various sizes to weigh solid objects and pots or containers of their own choice to measure the quantity of grains or liquids.

4. Which is the first recorded unit to measure length?

The cubit was the first recorded unit to measure length. A cubit as the length from the elbow to the finger tips was used in ancient Egypt and was also accepted as a unit of length in other parts of the world.

5. Why did ancient method of measurement led to confusion?

In the olden days, people used to measure length by comparing them with the length of some of their body parts like hand, arm, foot or steps. But this method of measurement could not be same for all. The length of an object differed from person to person depending on the length of their arms. These differences often led to confusion and quarrels between people.

6. What is a unit?

Measurements means the comparison of an unknown quantity with some known quantity. This known fixed quantity is called a unit. The result of a measurement is expressed in two parts. One part is a number. The other part is the unit of the measurement.

7. Define length.

Length is a measurement of an object from one end to another. Length may be distinguished from height, which is vertical extent, and width or breadth, which are the distance from side to side, measuring across the object at right angles to the length. The words long and short are used for comparing lengths.

8. Which is the standard unit of length?

The standard unit of length is the meter. Long distances, like distance between two places, which are more than 1000 meters are measured in kilometers (KM) Short lengths, which are less than one meter, are measured in centimeters(CM).

9. Name some instruments used to measure lengths.

Measuring tapes, meter rods and rulers are some of the instruments to measure length. A ruler can be used for measuring short lengths.

10. How can we measure the length of a curved line?

We can a use a thread to measure the length of the curved line. Put a knot on the thread near one of its ends. Place this knot on the point. Now place a small portion of the thread along the line, keeping it taut using your fingers and thumb. Hold the thread at this end point with one hand. Using the other hand, stretch a little more portion of the thread along the curved line. Go on repeating this process, till the other end of the curved line is reached. Make a mark on the thread where it touches the end. Now stretch the thread along a meter scale. Measure the length between the knot in the beginning and the final mark on the thread. This gives the length of the curved line.