A number of

units of measurement A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude (mathematics), magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can ...

were used in Nicaragua to measure measurements in mass, area, volume, etc. In Nicaragua, the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the Decimal, decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in French Revolution, France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the d ...

was adopted in 1910, and has been compulsory since 1912, by a joint convention between

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Pre-metric units

Before the metric system, a number of modified Spanish (i.e. Spanish Castilian), English and local units were used.

Mass

Several units were used to measure mass in the above five countries. Some of these units are given below: 1 caja = 16 kg 1

fanega The fanega or Spanish bushel was an old measure of dry capacity in Spanish-speaking countries. It was generally used in an agricultural context to measure quantities of grain. The measure varied greatly, but in Castile, it was equivalent to ...

= 92 kg 1 carga = 161 kg

Area

Several units were used to measure area in these countries. One manzana was equal to 10,000 square varas or 6987.4 m². (A vara was an obsolete Spanish unit of length equal to 0.8359 m.) One caballeria was equal to 64 manzanas.

Volume

Several units were used to measure volume in these countries. One botella was equal to 0.63 to 0.67 litres. One cajuela was equal to 16.6 litres. However the capacity of one cuartillo is very variable.

References

{{Systems of measurement Nicaraguan culture