Vilia was in charge of some "standard unit measuring tools", and she hoped that the "rope rulers" in the hands of the tribesmen would all be given to her with the same length, so-called standard stika.
In reality, it's not as simple as she thought. Is Vilia's grasp really that standard? In fact, there is a slight gap between the so-called "standard one stika rope rule" of each tribe and the allied tribes in the south. So when trading linens and animal skins, merchants always had to add another thumb's length.
After all, there is only a little more, and no one will suffer a big loss.
Vilia happily showed: "This rope is one stika length. It is used to measure the length of linen and animal skins. Naturally, it can also measure your height. Now take off your leather boots and stand up easily."
"OK!"
Rurik stood up quickly. He also had another plan in mind, so he used his own height measured in local length units to estimate the difference between a stika and a standard meter.
Maybe the difference isn't that big.
Because he saw that Villa didn't even need to straighten his arms, the hemp rope was stretched straight, and it even seemed that it was not much different from the "one meter" in his concept.
His estimate was correct!
However, several units of length that have been commonly used in Scandinavia are actually very similar to the metric unit of length a thousand years later, and are even particularly similar to the "one meter" originally determined. This is purely a romantic coincidence.
Because of another dimension, French scientists hope to invent a unit of length that can be used across Europe. They used an immediate method to calculate the different lengths of shadows between Paris and Alexandria at the vernal equinox, and then asked people to use ancient length units to measure the distance. They suddenly calculated the arc length on the curved surface of the earth from Paris to the port of Pressure Mountain.
With the arc length, it is assumed that the earth is a perfect ball, and it is logical to calculate the circumference of the entire sphere. Therefore, the distance from the North Pole to the equator is considered to be 10,000 kilometers, and a circle of the earth is artificially determined to be 40,000 kilometers.
Of course, because of the longitude difference between Paris and Alexandria, the "one meter" length obtained from the initial survey data was too small.
The initial scientific survey was in the first half of the 19th century, but the current era of Rurik is in the first half of the 9th century.
The two "one meters" are very similar, what a wonderful coincidence.
Rurik's height was measured. Because there were marks on the rope ruler, it had been divided into equal parts, and it was unexpectedly divided into ten parts.
It is not difficult to make ten equal parts. The rope must be divided into ten equal parts because man has ten fingers.
The reason why humans unanimously love the decimal system is because humans have ten fingers.
However, in both the East and the West and even in the isolated American continent, civilized groups invariably gave birth to mystical worship of the twelve-digit system.
In Europe, because the Viking group is indeed subordinate to the huge Germanic group, many cultural factors are the same.
Their various languages have a common origin, and they all have unique notations for the reading of numbers one to twelve.
Reflected in trade, high-level currencies correspond to twelve low-level currencies.
Of course, this cultural phenomenon was the same in Eastern Rome.
Rurik stood obediently, while Vilya hunched over and tried to measure his body with a rope ruler.
"Not bad, it seems you have surpassed Stika." Vilia shook his head.
"Grandma, do you think I should be shorter?"
"No. You will grow taller, your shortness is only temporary. For you, I need a new tool."
After a while, Villa took out an extended version of the rope ruler. According to him, this rope ruler was specially used for cutting curtains and curtains. The total length of the rope ruler was three stikas.
She muttered: "Mortals cannot be as tall as three stikas. Only the giants of Asgard can. Unfortunately, no one has seen those giants, not even me, who has lived for seventy years. The ordinary ones I know Men can generally grow to be as tall as one stika, one ell, and half an ell. I only remember your father’s father’s father. He was close to the height of two stikas. That was already a very old thing. At that time, I Only at your age.”
Regarding the description of numbers, perhaps Europeans have never thought since ancient times that numbers can be accurately described with very simple syllables.
In this regard, Eastern peoples may be able to do this easily because of the characteristics of their own languages.
There has always been an Eastern soul hidden under Rurik's body. He really understood Vilia's description of numbers, and converted it into Eastern terms, which is "1.75stika".
If you think about it for a moment, it seems like the Russians a thousand years later, maybe their superb mathematical level is tortured by the pronunciation of their extremely long numbers and the complexity of describing a long number.
In this respect alone, perhaps the French are even worse off. To describe a long number such as "eighty", they are clearly just listing an arithmetic problem to explain that this is "eighty".
In the end, Villa measured the height of Rurik, who was only seven years old, which was barely 1.2 stika.
She explained this result with a complicated description. Rurik's mind was very smart. He understood a precise value, but it was not clear whether the comparison between stika and "meter" was close.
"Perhaps, a seven-year-old boy who is 120 centimeters should be about the same size. European children should grow a little earlier than Easterners, and it shouldn't be too early."
"But food is still too scarce in this era. I will definitely not grow too tall, and there are no really strong men in the tribe."
"If it doesn't work, I will treat one stika as one meter in the future metric system?"
Rurik thought about it in his mind, and he couldn't believe that the error between two units of measurement in different time and space was surprisingly small.
He thought he was only 120 centimeters, but he actually realized that considering his age and the current living conditions of the tribesmen, it was quite good to be able to grow to his current height in a healthy manner.
Putting his own thoughts aside for the moment, Rurik suddenly asked: "Grandma, is this normal for me?"
"your height?"
"Yes! I'm still worried that I won't be strong in the future. I hope to be taller and stronger than my father."
Vilia was very happy to hear this. She patted the child on the head: "You are very ambitious! You have to know that when you can show your strong arm muscles in public, you will gain the respect of many men and the hearts of many girls. You are not very tall now, but you have great potential."
"For this purpose, should I eat more?"
"Yes. For example, eat more meat, my child." Vilia breathed a sigh of relief, "In a few days, those people who went north to hunt will come back. Pray for your father, if he can catch Live with more deer and you can keep eating meat until the ice-covered bay melts."
Rurik nodded deeply. Reindeer meat was more delicious than seal meat or other fish meat.
In fact, regarding meat-eating, this is something Rurik feels is worth considering.
The Rus tribe needed a large amount of wool. When the climate was warm, many people rowed southward with their allies, trading wool with Roman silver coins obtained from Novgorod, or trading with beast hides. This was indeed the case. The "invisible hand" regulates the prices of various commodities.
The Ross tribe themselves will make wool from balls of wool without any processing, and then the women will weave it into sweaters. The sweaters obtained through this hand-processing have been digested internally, and no one is willing to use sweaters as commodities. Likewise, the purchased linen is made into twine and further woven.
For small-scale printing and dyeing of various wool and linen threads, the tribe has a very traditional and primitive "moss printing and dyeing technique", which is not suitable for large-scale printing and dyeing.
They obtained a lot of wool but rarely bought sheep, and even rarer cattle. Southern allies raised sheep for wool and cattle for milk.
The absolute lack of productivity prevented the ancestors of the Swedes from eating these "grass-eating production machines" crazily. Unless a cold wave invaded, they would eat frozen cattle and sheep.
Roseburg's location further north means it's colder, and because of the lack of pasture, the cost-effectiveness of livestock farming is very poor. Only ocean fishing and hunting of animals are the most stable ways to obtain meat.
Rurik knew the delicacy of mutton and beef very well. He had cherished both kinds of meat during the seven years since his birth. On the contrary, it was as if reindeer meat was easily available, as if hunters were traveling further into the north, where forests and mossy moors were teeming with roaming reindeer herds.
