Motion and Measurement of Distances: science class six


The Story of Transport

From the beginning people had been moving from one place to another place basically in search of food, even today people move from one place to another to earn their livelihood and ultimately in the search of food. This means that movement is one of the prime necessities of humans.

In ancient times, there was no mode of transport available. In such a situation peoples move from one place to another on their feet and carry goods on their backs or heads.

Later on, people started using animals to carry loads and even using them as a mode of transport.

From ancient times water routes were used for transport. In the beginning, people started using logs of wood and gradually logs of wood were modified with a hollow cavity to facilitate the logs' better uplift in the water. Later people learnt to make platform like structures by putting different pieces of logs binding together which were able to carry people as well as their goods in the water.

These logs of wood were converted into the shapes of boats imitating the shapes of animals living in the water. Even today the shapes of ships and boats are made having fish like structures. And in this way boats became the prime mode of transport.

Later on, the wheel was invented and a revolutionary change took place in the mode of transport.

The design of the wheel has been improved over thousands of years. Even today without wheels the vehicles cannot be imagined. We can see that aeroplanes also require wheels before lifting in the air.

Again a revolutionary change came after the invention of the steam engine at the beginning of the 19th century. Railroads were made to drive carriages and wagons using steam engines. Until this people were dependent on animal power to transport them and their goods. Carriages were driven by horses, bullocks, donkeys, etc.

Later on, automobiles were invented and the transport system expanded its pace to motorised vehicles and boats. At the beginning of 1900 aeroplane was invented and the transport system got a pace in the sky.

The mode of transport and system we see today has to pass many ordeals and changes.

But even with the great transport system we have today, we need to measure the distance from one place to another place.

Measurements

What is Measurement?

Measurement is the comparison of an unknown quantity with a known quantity. The fixed known quantity is called a unit.

In ancient times the measurements were done using gilli danda, danda, hand span, foot span, the distance of a step, a cubit, etc.

A cubit is a length from the elbow to the fingertips which was very much popular among the Egyptians to measure the length.

The distance from the fingertip of a stretched arm to the chin was used to measure the length of clothes. Taking the pace or steps as a unit of measurement was prevalent in Romans.

In India, the thickness of one finger, two fingers, three fingers, and four fingers excluding the thumb was used as a unit of measurement along with the fist.

The width of the fingers as a unit of measurement was called angul and the fist was called mutthi.

In this way, people use to compare unknown quantities with fixed known quantities like gilli-danda, hand-span, foot-span, angul, mutthi, steps, etc.

But, since the hand span, foot span, length of the hand from shoulder to the end of the palm, etc. are not similar to one another and these do not give the measurement correctly so people started to feel the need for a more accurate measurement system.

Even today in villages the area of the agriculture field is measured using steps or cubits and bamboo sticks. Usually, a bamboo stick is made equal to three, four, five, or six cubits and this bamboo stick is used to measure the length and width of the agriculture field. And after measuring the length and width of the field the area is calculated.

You have heard about the kattha, bigha, etc. regarding the measurement of the agriculture field. These measurement units are used in the villages to measure the area of the agriculture fields and are still popular in many areas.

In villages even today the kosh is used to measure the distance from one village to another.

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