Measuring Scales

Measuring scales are standards of measurements. You may ask, why are they necessary? Well, before the standardization of measurements, it was difficult to determine the exact measurement of anything, say length. There were different units used by different people. The English used units such as foot and yard for measurement of length but they weren't accurate enough. King Henry I of England decided that the distance from the tip of his nose to the thumb of his hands, when outstretched, would be used for measurement. He named it the yard. This was roughly three times that of a foot, which itself wasn't a standard unit, with different people having different foot sizes! So, there was a need to define a standard set of measurements. In the early 18th century, the International System of Units came into being and the Metric System was formulated. Read on to know all about the different measurement scales, their origin, units and more.