Talk:Irish units of measurement

Factual Accuracy

The idea that a traditional Irish foot was exactly 25 cm strikes me as being extremely dubious. This needs a cite, badly. Rhialto (talk) 18:51, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Closer inspection of the data in the tables reveals that the SI values and the imperial values don't even match up! The cites that are given seem to indicate the relative value between these units, but don't say anything about their absolute value as conversions to imperial or SI units. Rhialto (talk) 18:54, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

There was no single officially sanctioned measure in Ireland. The "foot" was taken to be the length of a man's foot, which varies among men but is about 25 cm, just as the cubit is variable between people but is usually about 50-60 cm. Where the SI and Imperial don't match, that is due to rounding or to a mistake which I've just fixed. EamonnPKeane (talk) 00:15, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

I agree in being dubious about a 25cm basic foot ..... BUT setting that to one side; how does a step of 2.5 unit become a double step of 6? Added to which, it is simplistic to suggest that Ireland would have had a single set of measures unmentioned by the Kings of Tara. 2A00:23C7:AEA2:4001:B57D:2DF0:8072:CC8B (talk) 09:26, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

The fact is that ordlach means inch. But it was confused with the mér i.e. in Roman measures, the digitus. So roughly : 1 ordlach = 2.5 cm 1 bas = 4 ordlach = 10 cm 1 troighid = 3 bas = 30 cm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.133.150.233 (talk) 18:21, 16 August 2023 (UTC)