It is said that the number of seconds between a flash of lightning and the thunder will give the distance between you and the place where the lightning struck.
We use weighing machines or scales in buying food, so that we may compare the actual amount of food we buy with a standard weight, otherwise there would be much confusion and business could not be carried on between peoples. For this reason we use pint, quart, peck and bushel measures, all of which are regulated by law as to the amount they hold.
There are some people who have a true feeling or sense for weight and can tell almost to an ounce the weight of a parcel by lifting it. Others have a good memory and can tell the weight of a quantity by looking at it. Others know distance and can estimate it correctly without use of rule or measure, and likewise judge numbers.
Very few people have this ability naturally, but many have acquired it by practice and patience and a Scout can do so: she will find many times that this particular form of knowledge whether in or out of doors is of benefit.
How often a housekeeper wishes she could tell about how much material to buy for this or that purpose without getting the yard stick and measuring. The seamstress and dressmaker must judge length and width and even height, and the cook constantly has need of a sense of quantity and size. The photographer, the pioneer, the camper, all must know measurements. This matter of judging is something we are called upon to do much more than we have realized. The point is how can we learn the trick? We should start with something we know and compare to it something whose size we do not know. This is where knowing your personal measurement will be of value. Always prove when practicing your idea, otherwise you will not improve your ability. That is, make your estimate, then see how near right it is by measuring. Learn to know how an inch, a foot, a yard look. Then work with longer lengths out of doors with several feet, and several yards. Fences, roads, streets, dooryards, houses, all can be judged as to length.
Height is less easy to estimate for we are not so accustomed to looking up and down as we are to looking forward or back and forth, but the same rules hold good. Learn to know the height of a chair seat, a table, your own height, a room, a house, trees: by measuring and looking, and looking and measuring, you will accomplish much.
To learn to judge weight begin by holding in your hand something that weighs a pound; after holding it a few moments put it down and then take it up again always trying to sense the weight. Do not use your eyes, only your hand. Try a two pound weight and so on. Then take up something else the weight of which you do not know and see if you can tell its weight. Practice, patience and memory are necessary in this work.
There is another way of judging weight, one in which our eyes help us. Knowing how a pound of butter looks as to size we can judge the weight of a mass of butter by looking at it and comparing it mentally with what we know. We can follow this method in judging the weight of different goods, but as each kind when put in pound quantities looks more or less different from every other kind, experience and knowledge of the character of the goods is necessary. A pound of butter and a pound of feathers do not make the same size bundle so the weight of each could not be judged by the same eye standard.
By practice a Girl Scout should be able to do the following things in the way of judging height, weight and distance:
(1) Be able to judge within 25 per cent the following: Height of a tree, house, pole, etc., not exceeding 50 feet. Material, 1, 3, 15, 18, 27, 30, 36, 42 and 56 inches. Diameter of the trunk of a tree, a pole, water pipe or similar object. Distance of 6, 10, 15, 25 and 100 feet. (This is useful in camera work.)