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The Danes started with a 'system of units' based on a Greek ''pous'' ("foot") of 308.4 mm (1.012 ft) which they picked up through trade in the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age. Some early standards of measure can be recovered from measured drawings made of the 52.5-foot long Hjortspring boat which though dating to the early Iron Age exemplifies plank built vessels of the late Bronze Age and the 82 ft long Nydam ship. Thwarts are typically spaced about 3 ''fod'' apart.
From May 1 1683, King Christian V of Denmark introduced an office to oversee weights and measures, a ''justervæsen'', first led by Ole Rømer. The definition of the ''alen'' was set to 2 Rhine feet. Rømer later discovered that differing standards for the Rhine foot existed, and in 1698 an iron Copenhagen standard was made. A pendulum definition for the foot was first suggested by Rømer, introduced in 1820, and changed in 1835. The metric system was introduced in 1907.

Contents

Length

Volume

Weight

Miscellaneous

See also

External link

Length

★ ''mil'' – Danish mile. Towards the end of the 17th century, Ole Rømer, Mercator and other contemporaries of the great Dutch cartographer Thisus began following Claudius Ptolomy in connecting the mile to the great circle of the earth, and Roemer defined it as 12,000 ''alen''. This definition was adopted in 1816 as the Prussian ''Meile''. The coordinated definition from 1835 was 7.532 km. Earlier, there were many variants, the most commonplace the ''Sjællandsk miil'' of 17,600 ''alen'' or 11.13 km (6.92 mi).

★ ''palme'' – palm, for circumference, 8.86 cm (3.49 in)

★ ''alen'' – forearm, 2 ''fod''

★ ''fod'' – about 313.85 mm (12.356 inches) in most recent usage. Defined as a ''Rheinfuss'' 314.07 mm (12.365 inches) from 1683, before that 314.1 mm (212.366 in) with variations.

★ ''kvarter'' – quarter, 1/4 ''alen''

★ ''tomme'' – thumb (inch), 1/12 ''fod''

★ ''linie'' – line, 1/12 ''tomme''

★ ''skrupel'' – scruple, 1/12 ''linie''

Volume

★ ''potte'' – pot, from 1683 1/32 ''fot''³, about 966 ml (2.04 pt) in 19th and 20th centuries

★ ''smørtønde'' – barrel of butter, from 1683, 136 ''potter''

★ ''korntønde'' – barrel of corn (grain), from 1683 144 ''potter''

Weight

★ ''pund'' – pound, from 1683 the weight of 1/62 ''fot''³ of water, 499.75 g (1.1 lb)

Miscellaneous

★ ''dusin'' – dozen, 12

★ ''snes'' – score, 20

★ ''gros'' – gross, 144

See also

★ Weights and measures

★ Historical weights and measures

★ SI

External link

★ Scandinavian units