Desert island, how to find weight

[iamBevan]

A friend asked me a question recently...

If you were washed up on a desert island - with nothing but yourself, and what the island offers (your standard desert island I guess) - how could you work out a system for mass, distance and time?

I've assumed that a system could easily be made - if you were to know your heart rate, height, and weight accurately - but that would you be your own system, relative to yourself only?

I want to know if there is a way to work out mass, distance and time, using the things we see around us - similar, or exactly as we measure it now? In the standardised sense.

 

[Drakkith]

Well, first it might be helpful to establish a measurment system that is easy to use from the available objects you have. You could simply say 1 foot is equal to the length of your feet! For mass you could start with something like a rock or coconut or whatever and use that as your basis. As for time you can measure the movement of shadow during the day and simply divide that into sections to determine the length of time. These won't be very accurate, but would be 1 way of starting out.

From there it takes more of a leap to get the standard measurements today. For one person, in one lifetim, I don't see it being possible to get "exactly" the measurements we currently use. But honestly it just depends on how accurate you want to be with the difference in the two measuring systems.