The Science in the Bible

Unit workbench

Every unit, and one control that moves them all

One cubit is 18 inches (45.72 centimeters) throughout the book. It is a declared convention, not an estimate. Change it here and every figure on this page follows.

or in

Length

Convert a stated dimension

=

Try 300 (the vessel in Genesis 6), 10 (the Bronze Sea), or 6 (a stature in 1 Samuel 17).

Volume and capacity

Mass

Rescaling the whole book

Every figure printed in the book can be converted to another attested cubit with one multiplication. These are the factors printed in the back matter.

Why one value, when the rule elsewhere is ranges? Because that rule exists to stop a choice being hidden. A convention declared once, applied everywhere, and published with the factors to undo it is disclosed rather than hidden — and at 18 inches the imperial conversion is exact and can be done in the head. Hedging the cubit ninety times would not be more honest, only less usable.