Look at Ben Meadows.com (see Link below). In forestry we use these kind of tapes all the time. Some are in inches and some are in 10th's. On the back side of the tape it will have measurements for the diameter. You can measure around the tree (circumference) and just read from the tape and it does the math for you to get the diameter without having to cut the tree, (they'll get cut later).
Just use your normal ruler... one inch equals 100/100th's...so a quarter of a inch would be .25, a half an inch .50, and three quarters would be .75 etc. Breaking it down smaller an eight of an inch would be twelve and a half hundredths, a 16th would be 6 and a quarter hundredths.
I use a rule thats designated in decimal inches every day. Starrett, Brown and sharpe and Mitutoyo make them...to name a few. Pricey little things though.
There are two types of decimal rulers. One is used by surveyors, the other by machinists/engineers. The survey ruler is divided into tenths of a foot, not inches. The engineer ruler is divided into tenths of an inch and parallels the measurements on the leaf thickness gauge and the micrometer. The one I use is from Lufkin and can be found on their website. Mine is a 12' tape and cost $8.80 + SHT. There are other sources, but this was the most reasonable price I found.
The ruler has decimal inches along one side and fractional inches on the other side. You just look at the mark directly across from what you want to convert. No room for error, no transposed figures.
Or we could just get smart and convert to the metric system like every other country in the world, and like we should have done fifty years ago. :thumbup:
Or we could just get smart and convert to the metric system like every other country in the world, and like we should have done fifty years ago. :thumbup:
Sorry, but this thread just reinforces the dumbing of America. Just divide the top number by the bottom number in the fraction to get the decimal equivalent. Geeze, every cell phone in the world has a build in calculator function now if 1/4 is too hard for you to figure out.
I DON'T HAVE A CELL PHONE. I AM STILL RUNNING PROGRAMS BASED ON dos BECAUSE NEWER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER. I CAN LOOK AT THE SIDE OF THE TAPE CALIBRATED IN 100TH OF A INCH AND LOOK AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TAPE AND EYEBALL IT TO THE NEAREST 64TH WITHOUT A CALCULATOR OR CELL PHONE. I CAN DO THE MATH LONG HAND WITH PAPER AND PENCIL. I DO HAVE A LITTLE PROBLEM DOING DECIMAL EQUILIVANTS OF 5/64THS IN MY HEAD TO NEAREST 100TH WHEN I CAN DO IT READILY BY JUST LOOKING AT THE EDGES OF THE TAPE.
i just close my left eye, hold up my right thumb at arms length, and stick the tip of my tongue out of the right side of my mouth.
this form of measurement is accurate to 43/98ths of a meter when use with the corresponding fuzzy truck-driver math.
i just close my left eye, hold up my right thumb at arms length, and stick the tip of my tongue out of the right side of my mouth.
this form of measurement is accurate to 43/98ths of a meter when use with the corresponding fuzzy truck-driver math.
I re-upholstered some furniture for my wife, (before we were married) I used a drafting trammel to get the curves just right and drew the stitch lines on the back also. I had all my pieces listed on my note paper. I had bought one of those cheap sewing kits at walmart that had a needle threader, cloth tape thread. etc. and had it in a drawer in the sewing table. I picked up the cloth tape to check the pieces to lay them out to start sewing and they did not match the notes I had made when doing the layout. THE INCH LAYOUT ON THE TAPE WAS OFF ABOUT 20 %. I took a second look and said those curves are more than (x) inches apart. Metric side was ok.
I re-upholstered some furniture for my wife, (before we were married) I used a drafting trammel to get the curves just right and drew the stitch lines on the back also. I had all my pieces listed on my note paper. I had bought one of those cheap sewing kits at walmart that had a needle threader, cloth tape thread. etc. and had it in a drawer in the sewing table. I picked up the cloth tape to check the pieces to lay them out to start sewing and they did not match the notes I had made when doing the layout. THE INCH LAYOUT ON THE TAPE WAS OFF ABOUT 20 %. I took a second look and said those curves are more than (x) inches apart. Metric side was ok.
Reminds me about when we were installing a big GT power plant in Korea(Seoinchon). Everything was in inches, etc. The Korean foundation labor force was issued a dual tape measure - oops!! The metric side was 100% correct, the metric side - I never had seen an inch broken down into FIVE quarters. That contractor had a lot of rework at his expense ain: .
Of the seven tape measures I have readily available (don't ask), only one has the ability to read in decimal- the ~$85 Starrett Digitape (less when I bought mine), p/n D1-25 (64443). At least it's made in the USA.
Measuring beyond (more accurately) than 1/64th or .0156 (1 div by 64) with a tape measure is almost out of the question in the home garage. How are you going to incorporate a "steel rule" (piece of steel graduated in decimal and inches) into the measurement??. 1/64th is pretty small even on one of these "steel rules" ( no er attached).
The distinction of scales, rules and rulers was taught in about 7th grade drafting. The "whack" method with each produced lifetime memories. ain:
Ah, heck . Just go to HF and buy a 9" digital caliper . Just press a button and switch from thousandths to mm . I have a 4" and use it all the time to check my drill bits. I can't read the numbers on the bits so I keep the caliper in an adjacent drawer . Allan
Got a 6 in and do the same thing. The old eyes aren't what they used to be.
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