Talk:Digit (unit)

The proportions of fingers to palms and hands vary. The number of fingers in a palm is four and the number of fingers in a hand is five. Anciently Egyptian, Roman and European feet west of the Rhine and south of the North Sea are based on Roman feet, remen and cubits used for land measure, use palms and have 16 fingers. Mesopotamia, Persia, sometimes Egypt, Greece, and Europe east of the Rhine and north of the North Sea, generally use hands and feet with 15 fingers derived from ells used in cloth measure, containers for bread and beer and other commodities traded along rivers.


 * 1 daktulos (pl. daktuloi), digit := 1/16 pous
 * 1 condulos := 1/8 pous
 * 1 palaiste, palm := ¼ pous
 * 1 dikhas := ½ pous
 * 1 spithame, span := ¾ pous
 * 1 pous (pl. podes), foot :≈ 316 mm, said to be 3/5 Egyptian royal cubit. There are variations, from 296 mm (Ionic) to 326 mm (Doric)
 * 1 pugon, Homeric cubit := 1¼ podes
 * 1 pechua, cubit := 1½ podes ≈ 47.4 cm
 * 1 bema, pace := 2½ podes
 * 1 khulon := 4½ podes
 * 1 orguia, fathom := 6 podes
 * 1 akaina := 10 podes
 * 1 plethron (pl. plethra) := 100 podes, a cord measure
 * 1 stadion (pl. stadia) := 6 plethra = 600 podes ≈ 185.4 m
 * 1 diaulos (pl. diauloi) := 2 stadia, only used for the Olympic footrace introduced in 724 BC
 * 1 dolikhos := 6 or 12 diauloi. Only used for the Olympic foot race introduced in 720 BC
 * 1 parasanges := 30 stadia ≈ 5.5 km. Persian measure used by Xenophon, for instance
 * 1 skhoinos (pl. skhoinoi, lit. "reefs") := 60 stadia ≈ 11.1 km (usually), based on Egyptian river measure iter or atur, for variants see there
 * 1 stathmos :≈ 25 km, one day's journey. May have been variable, dependent on terrain

While fingers generally form the basis of palms and hands and are multiplied into feet and cubits, they also form the basis of the remen which was used in land survey mecause its the diagonal of the 3:4:5 triangles used in land survey

The remen based stadion used at Olympia measures 192.3 m. With a widespread use throughout antiquity, there were many variants of a stadion, from as short as 157.5 m up to 222 m, but it is usually stated as 185 m.

The Greek root stadios means 'to have standing'. Stadions are used to measure the sides of fields.

In the time of Herodotus, the standard Attic stadion used for distance measure is 600 pous of 308.4 mm equal to 185 m. so that 600 stadia equal one degree and are combined at 8 to a mia chilioi or thousand which measures the boustredon or path of yoked oxen as a distance of a thousand orguia, taken as one orguia wide which defines an aroura or thousand of land and at 10 agros or chains equal to one nautical mile of 1850 m.

Several centuries later, Marinus and Ptolemy used 500 stadia to a degree, but their stadia were composed of 600 Remen of 370 mm and measured 222 m, so the measuRement of the degree was the same.

The same is also true for Eratosthenes, who used 700 stadia of 157.5 m or 300 Egyptian royal cubits to a degree, and for Aristotle, Posidonius, and Archimedes, whose stadia likewise measured the same degree.

The 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica mentions a measure named acæna which was a rod ten (Greek) feet long used in measuring land.

The Remen is defined as the proportion of the diagonal of a rectangle to its sides when its other sides are whole units. In its earliest form it is the diagonal of a square, with its sides a cubit. Typical of the Classical orders of the Greeks and Romans, it was built upon the canon of proportions derived from the inscription grids of the Egyptians.

The Remen is most commonly used as a Proportion to other units

The proportion of foot to remen can be either 4:5 making it the hypotenuse or 3:4 making it the side of a right triangle. If the remen is the hypotenuse of a 3:4:5 triangle then the foot is one side and the quarter another so the proportions are 3:4 quarter to foot, 4:5 foot to remen and 3:5 quarter to Remen. The quarter is 1/4 yard. The foot is 1/3 yard. The remen is

The remen may also be the side of a square whose diagonal is a cubit The proportion of remen to cubit is 4:5


 * The proportion of palm to remen is 1:5
 * The proportion of hand to remen is 1:4
 * The proportion of palm to foot is 1:4
 * The proportion of hand to foot is 1:3

The table below demonstrates a harmonious system of proportion much like the musical scales, with fourths and fifths, and other scales based on geometric divisions, diameters, circumferences, diagonals, powers, and series coordinated with the canons of architectural proportion, Pi, phi and other constants..

In Mesopotamia and Egypt the Remen could be divided into different proportions as a similar triangle with sides as fingers, palms, or hands. The Egyptians thought of the Remen as proportionate to the cubit or mh foot and palm.

They used it as the diagonal of a unit rise or run like a modern framing square. Their relatedseked gives a slope. Its convenient to think of remen as intermediate to both large and small scale elements.

Even before the Greeks like Solon, Herodotus, Pythagorus, Plato, Ptolomy, Aristotle, Eratosthenes, and the Romans like Vitruvius, there seems to be a concept that all things should be related to one another proportionally.

Its not certain whether the ideas of proportionality begin with studies of the elements of the body as they relate to scaling architecture to the needs of humans, or the divisions of urban planning laying out cities and fields to the needs of surveyors.

In all cultures the canons of proportion are proportional to reproducable standards.

In ancient cultures the standards are divisions of a degree of the earths circumference into mia chillioi, mille passus, and stadia. Stadia, are used to lay out city blocks, roads, large public buildings and fields

Fields are divided into acres using as their sides, furlongs, perches, cords, rods, fathoms, paces, yards, cubits, and remen which are proportional to miles and stadia

Buildings are divided into feet, hands, palms and fingers, which are also systematized to the sides of agricultural units.

Inside buildings the elements of the architectural design follow the canons of proportion of the the inscription grids based on body measures and the orders of architectural components.

In manufacturing the same unit fraction proportions are systematized to the length and width of boards, cloth and manufactured goods.

The unit fractions used are generally the best sexigesimal factors, three quarters, halves, 3rds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, eighths, tenths, unidecimals, sixteenths and their inverses used as a doubling system

Greek Remen generally have long, median and short forms with their sides related geometrically as arithmetric or geometric series based on hands and feet.


 * The Egyptian bd is 300 mm and its remen is 375 mm. the proportion is 1:1.25
 * The Ionian pous and Roman pes are a short foot measuring 296 mm their remen is 370 mm
 * the Old English foot is 3 hands (15 digits of 20.32 mm) = 304.8 mm and its remen is 381 mm
 * The Modern English foot is 12 inches of 25.4 mm = 304.8 mm and its remen is 381 mm (15")
 * The Attic pous measures 308.4 mm its remen is 385.5
 * The Athenian pous measures 316 mm and is considered of median length its remen is 395 mm
 * Long pous are actually Remen (4 hands) and pygons
 * See cubit for the discussion of the choice of division into hands or palms
 * See the table below for proportions relative to other ancient Mediterranean units

Roman Remen generally have long, and short forms with their sides related geometrically as arithmetric or geometric series based on fingers palms and feet.

By Roman times the Remen is standardized as the diagonal of a 3:4:5 triangle with one side a palmus and another a pes. The Remen and similar forms of sacred geometry formed the basis of the later system of Roman architectural proportions as described by Vitruvius. Generally the sexagesimal (base-six) or decimal (base-ten) multiples have Mesopotamian origins while the septenary (base-seven) multiples have Egyptian origins.