Bachier

Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
Facultad de Ingeniería
Erick Domínguez
Sección: D

Special Assignement

25 de Febrero del 2013


INDEX

Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------- 3
Objectives--------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Units of Measures used in Guatemala ------------------------------ 5 & 6
Conclusions --------------------------------------------------------------- 7
Annexes -------------------------------------------------------------- 8
Bibliography -------------------------------------------------------------- 9

Introduction
The followingjob talks about Units of measure used in Guatemala. We as engineers, have to know about this, because in one way or another we are, we are involved in this, and we have to know what measures we have to use or what measures were using.

Objectives
1. Have better knowledge about the units of measure, and some of their conversions.
2. Get more involved with the measure that it is used inGuatemala, because one day we are gone to use them too.
3. Know how in every country the measures are the same, the only thing that changes is the expression.

UNITS OF MESASURES USED IN GUATEMALA
In Guatemalans use the metric system, but also some traditional units of measurement (that come from Spain, Spanish units of measurement) and influence from US English units. You buy gas by thegallon, drive stretches of road in kilometers, and you plant corn by the cuerda.
Brief history: in May 1910 most of Central America adopted a common system of measurements, and in May 1921 Guatemala became officially metric. Therefore, all road distances are in km; Guatemalan specific is that ALL roads have their distances measured from a spot that is located in the entrance of former presidentialpalace, now called National palace.
Among the Guatemalan units of measurement some are based on old Spanish units; they include the vara and cuadra linear measurements; the vara cuadrada, the manzana and the cuerda units of area; and the libra, arroba, quintal and garrafón units of weight and volume.
The vara cuadrada or square vara is commonly used in land transactions in Guatemala and 10,000square varas equal one manzana. One square vara equals 0.6987 square metres (7.521 sq ft), while one manzana equals 6,987 square metres (1.727 acres). A Spanish pound (libra) is 460 grams.
Some United States customary units are also used. These include inches, feet, miles, gallons, pounds (note the Spanish pound is also used) and ounces. In shops you will find mixture of almost all measures, andyou have to be careful when estimating relation between price and amount that you get.
To make things more complicated, Guatemalans use also measures like spoons and cups, and sometimes if very hard to make some recipes. So, to make it easier I enclose here some tables so you can find your way in Guatemalan measurement knot. Also I urge you to use online conversion tools.

VARA (unit o length)A vara (meaning "rod" or "pole") is an old Spanish unit of length. Varas are a surveying unit that appears in many deeds in the southern United States, and varas were also used in many parts of Latin America. It varied in size at various times and places; the Spanish unit was set at about 835.905 mm (32.91 in) in 1801. A league is equivalent to 5,000 varas squared or 4,428.4 acres(1,792.11 ha).To convert varas to feet, take the varas and divide by 0.36.A measure of 100 varas by 100 varas (Spanish) is almost 7000 square meters, and is known traditionally throughout Latin America as a “manzana” (i.e., a "city block"). As well, lumber is still measured in Costa Rica using a system based on 4 vara, or 11 feet, for both round and square wood. With square wood, using inches, the width is...