How big is a span?

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ANTIcarrot
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How big is a span?

Post by ANTIcarrot »

I've done a search for similar topics but couldn't turn anything up. Near as I can tell it's about 20cm. Though I'm not sure I could quote chapter and verse to back that up. ;)
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Shadowhawk
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by Shadowhawk »

Span is the width of a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the pinky finger.
1 span = 9 inches = 22.9 cm.
from Wikipedia: Span (unit)
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Fel
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by Fel »

Yes, I know, I'm evil...I use a custom system of weights and measures and seemingly never give a comparison....

Or DO I?

Go look through Questing Game, you'll find the conversion. ;)

You're close, Shadowhawk.

A span is made up of 10 "fingers," each of which is about 1 inch. It's not exactly 1 inch, but it's close enough to round off.

1 span = 10 inches, with a slight fraction which is ignored.

4 spans to a pace.

2 paces to a stride.

5000 spans to a longspan.

4 longspans to a league.

Because of the wonders of mathematics, it works out that a Sennadar league is exactly 3 miles in the English system.

Of course, me specifically engineering the measurements so they matched to make it easier to accurately measure distances had nothing to do with it....

*whistles innocently*

For those who are curious, the span of measurement dates back to the Urzani domination of the world. It was the span of the hands with fingers spread and pinkies touching of the Crown Princess Urilaeria when she was five years old. It we divided into smaller units which was the average of the space between the tips of her fingers. Originally, there were only 8 fingers to a span because the Urzani only have 8 fingers, but it was changed after the fall of the Urzani Empire to 10 fingers, but the length of a span wasn't altered...just the measure of a finger was shortened to fit 10 into a span.

This is why they're called fingers and spans.

The ORIGINAL system of measure was the length of the rod held by the Emperor/Empress, but it was changed. The original Rod of measurement was approximately 1.5 feet in the English system.

And as a bit of extra trivia, Urilaeria was the 9th generation ancestor of Spyder (her "great x 8 grandmother).

The Sennadar system uses the "stone" as the weight of measure.

1 stone is around 3.5 pounds in the English system. It is further divided into 20 smaller units, called facets.

The original stone is also of Urzani origination. It was the weight of the Imperial Crown. The smaller units were called facets after the 20 gems in the crown. It was originally called a "crown" after the crown, but since stones of exactly similar weight were used outside of Shilarith (the capitol city, which was destroyed and whose ruins now reside in southern Sulasia), it came to be known as a stone of weight.

This concludes today's episode of Useless Facts.
Last edited by Fel on Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Spec8472
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by Spec8472 »

Fel wrote:A span is made up of 10 "fingers," each of which is about 1 inch. It's not exactly 1 inch, but it's close enough to round off.

I've started adding this info to the Wiki, for future reference.

http://wiki.sennadar.plebian.net/index. ... easurement
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by Fawks »

Fel wrote:And as a bit of extra trivia, Urilaeria was the 9th generation ancestor of Spyder (her "great x 8 grandmother).
Wouldn't that be:
great great great great great great great grandmother
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 greats x 7
greats + (grandmother(i. e. two generations, mom and gmom)) = ancesters x 9

Just curious.

And while on the subject of family connections, is your cousins child your 2nd cousin or 1st cousin once removed?!? What is the difference?

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Fel
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by Fel »

Dunno. I have like 3000 cousins of various "removeds" so they're all just cousins to me.
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by Fawks »

I dont know how many cousins that I have. My mother had 8 siblings, most older than her. I have NO idea how many cousins that I have, all told, just with her siblings. They are scattered from Alaska to somewhere back east.
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by ANTIcarrot »

1 span = 10 inches, with a slight fraction which is ignored.
1000 spans to a longspan.
4 longspans to a league.
Because of the wonders of mathematics, it works out that a Sennadar league is exactly 3 miles in the English system.
Um...

If one span is equal to 10 inches then it is also equal to 25cm. So one longspans would be equal to 250m, and one league would be equal to 1km.

:roll:

Anyways, thanks for confirming what a span is. ;)
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Fel
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Re: How big is a span?

Post by Fel »

Yah, you're right, because I wasn't paying attention and put in a wrong number. I'll fix it on the main post with an edit, but just for you:

5000 spans to a longspan, not 1000. ;)

Sorry about that.

The sad thing is, I read that right off my reference file, and still put it in wrong. :oops:
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