Ruler snafu.

[TConnolly 13]

Nothing to add, the picture says it all.

[TimWilborne 108]

Better long than short, how else would you do the initial calibration?

[Steve Bailey 118]

Maybe the word snafu translates to the Chinese word for the unit represented by 1/15th of an inch. Or perhaps it's a special ruler. Given the proclivity of certain manufacturers from that part of the world for using melamine to boost the protein test results of some of their products, maybe it's used to measure all sorts of product sold by linear measure.

[DwalterE 0]

Saw this in a plant that does work for the railways. The plant manager told me that the railways required the certification. He also mentioned that they'd found someone using a tape that was two feet short! Saw this in a plant that does work for the railways. The plant manager told me that the railways required the certification. He also mentioned that they'd found someone using a tape that was two feet short!

[Guest]

in another lifetime, I was the electrician for a big fancy resort island ... my boss (working without adult supervision) measured one of the guest rooms for size – and then ordered enough custom-designed carpet to replace the flooring in about 200 units – to be installed just in time for our peak season ... trouble was - he used a meter-stick instead of a yard-stick – and didn’t notice the difference ... naturally ALL of the original carpet had already been torn out before the "short fall" error was noticed ...

[paulengr 44]

Most cheap, low-end rulers are botched...the "0" line is cut. So if there's any wear or screwup in manufacturing, you can't tell and all your measurements will be off. I generally don't even measure starting at "zero" for that reason. That is why engineering scales and most steel rulers always start the scale a little offset from the end. This one looks like it is actually made correctly, considering that it looks like the kind you find at Walmart. Buy two or three. Who knows when you'll find a good & inexpensive one like that again.

[Guest]

and in yet another lifetime, I worked on restaurant equipment ... one customer kept calling up and complaining that the speed of the conveyor chain through his pizza oven kept fluctuating ... by the time I could get to the pizza shop, he had always just left ... I’d check the oven – and it was always perfect ... finally I nailed him down with a rush visit – and saw how he had been “testing” the speed ... he was using a stopwatch to measure the elapsed time between when the “leading edge” of a pan first ENTERED the oven – and then when the “trailing edge” of the same pan finally LEFT the oven ... the “speed problem” arose because sometimes he’d run the test with a SMALL pan – and other times with a LARGE pan ... I actually set up a demonstration test with two different-sized pans side-by-side – and I’m not 100% sure that he understood it even then ...

[PdL 71]

ROFL you have got to be kidding me

[TConnolly 13]

Look again. Steve was spot on. Each inch only has 15 subdivisions. The screwup is most obvious between 1/2 and 3/4 and 1-1/2 and 1-3/4. But since the marks appear to be evenly spaced then either the entire ruler is off or at least the entire fraction part of each inch is off. It doesn't appear to be suitable for anything except maybe scratching a broken arm inside of a cast.

[TimWilborne 108]

I think he was joking...weren't you Paul

[paulengr 44]

No I wasn't. I missed the extra 16th inch mark. I'll have a dollop of whip cream with the humble pie.

[Steve Bailey 118]

I think you could make a case that the distance between zero and the 1 inch line corresponds to 25.4 mm. Certainly the first sixteen minor divisions starting at zero span more than 25.4 mm. So it looks like the inch marks may be accurate and each minor division is 1/15th of an inch (1 snafu).

[rlp122 4]

I think you mean the other way around. A meter is larger than a yard by a factor of 1.0936. Besides the US is almost the only spot in the world that still uses non-metric measurements.

[Steve Bailey 118]

C'mon, you expect the people of United States to accept a system of measurement that is based on accessible standards, is logically consistent, and easy to use???

[IamJon 0]

Maybe we can add that to our next 'economic stimulus package.' Edited 24 Feb 2009 by IamJon

[TConnolly 13]

No, Ron got it the right way around. If a room is 12 feet across then that is four yards or 3.66 meters. If a person making the measurement thinks he is using a yard stick to make the measurement but he is actually using a meter stick then he will think the room is 3.6 yards and order the carpet accordingly, thus a short fall. Edited 26 Feb 2009 by Alaric

[rlp122 4]

You can quit beating me with the meter stick. Steve already pointed it out.

[TConnolly 13]

Thats why we can't convert to metric. The phrase with "meter stick" just doesn't have the same ring as "yard stick." Actually, the stubbornness of the US public against converting is one of my pet peeves. The US needs to bite the bullet and convert. We can't keep using the USCU system forever, the longer we put it off the more it will hurt us in the meantime. Eventually the rest of the world will get tired of it and force us to change. There are costs in converting, but the longer we put it and/or the longer we take the more it will cost, so why do we procrastinate it? Edited 27 Feb 2009 by Alaric

[BobLfoot 302]

Because there are costs and the "right" people haven't agreed to pay them and the "right" people aren't in a position to make a profit off the conversion yet. <BEGIN RANT> Why didn't we build Y2K capable computers before 1999? - Cost, plain ole greed. Why isn't there a pipeline from the cheap oil Texas Oilfields to the Northeast and Western Refineries? - Cost, plain ole greed. Why haven't we converted to metric? - Cost, Plain ole greed. <END RANT - FOR NOW>

[paulengr 44]

Need to update that one a little bit. Western refineries are one thing. Northeast is a different matter. It depends on what you mean by "Northeast" but the Jersey-New York-Maryland area is already covered. http://www.colpipe.com/ab_map.asp During late summer when yet another hurricane hit the Gulf, the lack of supply caused widespread fuel shortages all along where this pipeline passes through.

[TimWilborne 108]

I can't speak for the entire area along the pipeline, but around here there was no shortage of supply. There was a shortage of fuel at the pumps where the delivery tankers couldn't keep up where everyone had to run out fill their tanks as if the world were coming to an end

[BobLfoot 302]

I can't find the original AP story I read on yahoo.com just this link now http://knowledgeproblem.com/2009/02/16/why...y-2009-version/. But the jist was we are using higher priced North Sea Crude rather than West texas to make gas because we can't ship it to refineries.