Measure the height of a building or tree indirectly | Handy Measuring Tool - Science Snack activity

Many of the numbers we use in science have never been measured directly; we only know them from indirect measurements. How far is it to the sun? What is the diameter of Saturn’s rings? Here’s a way to use nonstandard measurements and simple ratios for estimating sizes or distances.

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[AD-bxfm]

Excellent demonstration and so much easier than the stick method! You always have your hand with you, after all lol

[NavarinoDC]

Ingenious! Why didn't I learn this at school?

[RaysTrack]

But you didn't measure from your thumb tip to your shoulder, but from it's base (quite a difference). (?)

[TheNetflixGamer]

The way you can hear her think about what she’s gonna say next is very funny

[fighterslab]

Great tutorial. Thanks to Pythagoras, too A2 + B2 = C2

[vancass]

if an outstretched arm is bent and the finger spread is maintained, can it still be used to measure different types of distance and hight besides the straight arm method, providing the spread is still kept at eye level? just curious.

[MyHardyhar]

It's also called a span, used to be an old measurement unit

[royksk]

A rough guide only. Perhaps a taller building measured then compared to the actual height would be useful.

[EdgarGuevaraCodina]

My grandmother used to measure fabric and other stuff in "cuartas" :)

[siddharthchauhan]

How to measure something below the eye sight height

[jguild]

Not sure why the Spanish term had to be introduced.

[jtreedog]

that was a great video so i will subscribe for more video's

[ideaman]

I took the commercial class b/c that's where the girls went to. I need to know only the distance. Thanks

[benmacdui]

Great, im off to the park now to find out what height the trees are.

[stephenpowstinger]

She could have spelled out "cuarta". I was thinking maybe "quarta". It means a quarter. But she is using thirds. So ???

[eggspanda]

i can tell just by looking at the building its 4 meters high

[johnfrompeconiccounty]

This method only works if you have an extremely long tape measure with you. I’ve watched several these videos, this aspect of the method is always deemphasized. Anybody carrying around 100 foot or 200 foot tape measure will probably just measure the height of the building The conventional way.

[fasalalbana]

Amazing, this is called anthropometrics