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Rule of thumb
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A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination. Compare this to heuristic, a similar concept used in mathematical discourse, psychology and computer science, particularly in algorithm design. See also mnemonic.
earliest citation comes from Sir William Hope’s The Compleat Fencing-Master, second edition, 1692, page 157: "What he doth, he doth by rule of thumb, and not by art." The term is thought to originate with wood workers who used the length of their thumbs rather than rulers for measuring things, cementing its modern use as an inaccurate, but reliable and convenient standard.
It is often claimed that the term originally referred to a law that limited the maximum thickness of a stick with which it was permissible for a man to beat his wife, but this has been discredited.
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Encyclopedia
A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination. Compare this to heuristic, a similar concept used in mathematical discourse, psychology and computer science, particularly in algorithm design. See also mnemonic.
Origin of the phrase
The earliest citation comes from Sir William Hope’s The Compleat Fencing-Master, second edition, 1692, page 157: "What he doth, he doth by rule of thumb, and not by art." The term is thought to originate with wood workers who used the length of their thumbs rather than rulers for measuring things, cementing its modern use as an inaccurate, but reliable and convenient standard.
It is often claimed that the term originally referred to a law that limited the maximum thickness of a stick with which it was permissible for a man to beat his wife, but this has been discredited. Although British common law before the reign of Charles II permitted a man to give his wife "moderate correction", no 'rule of thumb' (whether called by this name or not) has ever been the law in
England. Nonetheless, belief in the existence of such a law can be traced as far back as 1782, the year James Gillray published his satirical cartoon Judge Thumb. The cartoon lambastes Sir Francis Buller, a British judge, for allegedly ruling that a man may legally beat his wife, provided that he used a stick no thicker than his thumb, although it is questionable whether Buller ever made such a pronouncement. In the United States, legal decisions in Mississippi (1824) and North Carolina (1868 and 1874) make reference to—and reject—an unnamed "old doctrine" or "ancient law" by which a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no wider than his thumb. In 1976, feminist Del Martin used the phrase "rule of thumb" to describe such a doctrine, and the usage gained currency in 1982, when the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report on wife abuse, titled "Under the Rule of Thumb."
Examples of usage
Financial - Rule of 72. A rule of thumb for exponential growth at a constant rate. An approximation of the doubling time formula used in population growth, which says divide 70 by the percent growth rate (the actual number is 69.3147181 from the natural logarithm of 2, if the percent growth is much much less than 1%). In terms of money, it is frequently easier to use 72 (rather than 70) because it works better in the 4%-10% range where interest rates often lie. Therefore, divide 72 by the percent interest rate to determine the approximate amount of time to double your money in an investment. For example, at 8% interest, your money will double in approximately 9 years (72/8 = 9).
Tailors' Rule of Thumb. This is the fictional rule described by Jonathan Swift in his satirical novel Gulliver's Travels:
Marine Navigation. A ship's captain should navigate to keep the ship more than a thumb's width from the shore, as shown on the nautical chart being used. Thus, with a coarse scale chart, that provides few details of nearshore hazards such as rocks, a thumb's width would represent a great distance, and the ship would be steered far from shore; whereas on a fine scale chart, in which more detail is provided, a ship could be brought closer to shore.
Hazardous Material Emergency Response. Hazardous material (hazmat) emergency responders in the US are trained to various levels of capability for action during a hazmat incident, with names for the capabilities varying by locale. Typically, basic-level responders are trained to be able to recognize various types of hazardous materials and establish an isolation perimeter around the site of the incident. Basic-level responders will observe the rule of thumb for establishing a minimum safe distance from a hazmat site. If the responder is uphill and upwind from the incident, and they are able to visually cover the site with a thumb held at arm's length, they are assumed to be a safe distance away from the event. Of course, this varies greatly depending on the nature of the hazmat incident, and should only be used as a general guideline. More specific information about hazardous material isolation is available in a material's material safety data sheet, or in such documents as the Emergency Response Guidebook, published by Chemtrec in the US. Other countries typically have their own hazmat emergency response resources.
Etiquette. In a formal place setting, the silverware and the dinner plate should be set back from the edge of the table a length equal to the distal phalanx of the thumb.
Brewing. Before the invention of thermometers, the brewer tested the wort by placing his thumb in it. When he could reliably place his thumb in the wort without having to remove it because of the heat, the wort was cool enough to pitch the yeast.
See also
External links
- - A user participation reference project based on Tom Parker's 3 best-selling books and more than 25 years of research.
- - A wiki based collection of user submitted rules of thumb
- - Discussion of the origins of the term by Cecil Adams.
- - A collection of business-oriented rules of thumb
- - Article debunking the "Rule of Thumb" connection to wife-beating
- - Faulty legal citations of the bogus wife-beating law.
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