Monday, April 25, 2022

Pop Wood

Popular Woodworking has published an excerpt from my new book in their June issue. Subscribers should watch for it arriving in their mail very soon if it's not gotten to you already. 

In the wood shop today at the Clear Spring School we began a new unit by exploring the relationship between the thumbs and the development of a system of measure. Tomorrow we'll go deeper in exploring the inch. How many know that the inch is actually derived from the width of a man's thumb? Or that  our own hands might be useful as a method of measure? 

In class my student used their own thumbs to plan and measure the length of simple pivot lid wooden boxes. I want my students to become masters of measuring before the block is completed, and making small wooden boxes will be a good way to propel us toward that goal.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.


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3 comments:

  1. Sylvain8:40 AM

    "How many know that the inch is actually derived from the width of a man's thumb?"
    Not anymore. Since an act of US Congress of 1866 it is derived from the metric system.
    1 inch being defined as 2.54 cm.

    Many changes needs about 60 years to be adopted. But here, we approach 120 years!

    As for being concrete, you could have chosen another part of their hand and give it any new name. In addition, their own thumb will give them a false idea of the length of an inch.

    Using a personal unit of measure is fine for a personal project but not for any cooperative one.

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  2. Doug Stowe9:22 AM

    It originated in the width of a man's thumb, and yes, the relationship between the inch and the metric system is accepted as 2.54 cm to the inch and vise versa. And of course, a standard unit is necessary for collaborative projects, which I explained.

    But the project was useful. The kids were excited about it. And it is only an introduction to becoming masters of measuring. Great for seeing fractions in real life, and seeing the doubling of the denominator as you go from whole to half, to quarters, to eights and on to 64ths.

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  3. Sylvain11:19 AM

    You might like to do the experiment shown here with your (older) students:
    look between 19'30" and about 27' in this Royal Institution Christmas lecture:
    https://www.rigb.org/explore-science/explore/video/magna-carta-microchip-principles-standards-and-methods-1981

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