text: why is a foot a foot?   well my friend taught me a little history earlier this year during algebra.  she said it was because when back in greece, math teachers would use an arm for this long, a hand for this amount and a foot for this amount. it happened that the math teacher's foot was 12 inches as a foot, so that's where it came from.  but here's another link i found.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/foot_(unit_of_length)   hope that helps!