Skip to main content


We've had this long furling tape from Japan for the longest time, for years!! thinking it was in inches. Causing us lots of mistakes and fuck ups, the whole time we thought it was our own miscalculations, that we must have messed up in converting it to metric or something.

1) The unit on the tape is in tenth of a foot.
2) That's almost exactly 3cm, BUT NOT QUITE.
3) The ruler says FEET, but then breaks it down in 3cm segments each divided in tenth of a tenth of foot.

WHAT THE FUCK RULER

This entry was edited (5 days ago)
in reply to Andy Alderwick

@alderwick here I was hating on the fact that the word "hexadecimal" mixes up latin and greek roots.
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

shaku-sun-bu approximator based on international feet, I guess? unless zhat's slightly off and actually 0.9942x ze measurement on your tri-blade ruler, which'd mean it's literally just shaku-sun-bu
in reply to Enys (Yao)

@yaodema it's a german triblade, so I think that's probably actual feet. If not, our measurements have been fucked on meta levels.
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

oh I mean your tri-blade being *actual feet* and zhis weird ruler being off by a tiny amount you can't see wizhout calipers, here. shaku are defined as 30.3cm to a foot's 30.48, after all
in reply to Enys (Yao)

@yaodema I'm just here questioning everything now, I don't have enough rulers on the boat to be doubly sure of anything.
in reply to Chloe :>

"It takes roughly 100 picoseconds for light to travel one-tenth of a foot."
:eccehomo:
This entry was edited (5 days ago)
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

We kindda wanna pass it on, but we'll have to put a label on it something, like: CURSED UNITS, experimental uses only.
This entry was edited (5 days ago)
in reply to gregori

literally me when I put it on the Free Stuff shelf at the marina.

cc @rek

This entry was edited (5 days ago)
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

Apparently it is not a rare thing in oilfield work? I recently watched this youtu.be/sdWEGzWFcCc?t=276 which has lots of other fascinating horrible units, but that's the bit that talks about "decimal feet".
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

isn’t that just a standard drafting scale, at 1:10000 feet? We used the metric ones in school, but they were standard scales.
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

So, wait—when it hits 10, does it go back to 0 and count up in tenths of a foot until it gets to 2 feet? As in there are no 11 and 12 marked on there?

Wow, just found one that does both:

in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

In forestry management we use imperial tape measures divided into 10 instead of 12. Specifically when measuring the diameter of a tree trunk. It means the result is a straight decimal, ie. 3.4' or 3.9' instead of 3'-4 4/5" or 3'-10 13/16".

I mean, yeah, metric would be easier all around, but at least this method does make tabulating and synthesising results in spreadsheets easier for Americans when it's in tenths of a foot vs twelfths.

in reply to David Bender

And you should see the back side of that same measuring tape - it measures "inches", but each "inch" is in actually 3.14159 (pi π) inches long, so that you don't have to do math in the field to convert circumference to diameter!

Super handy for those who know. Flabbergasting to those who don't.

in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

It's engineering units. I have an old folding rule, inches on one side and tenths on the other. It can be confusing. Anyhow, if you were working off plans with measurements in tenths, it is easier to use this kind of tape than converting numbers on site.
in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

holy _shit_ that's the most cursed thing I can imagine

"Make sure your measuring tapes are calibrated!" 😂

in reply to Devine Lu Linvega

@niels Ever since learning about the short ton (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_to…, 907kg, in the US apparently often called just the ton) I wish we defined a “long yard”, equal to 1m, and call it just “yard” in Europe for convenience.

Lo, thar be cookies on this site to keep track of your login. By clicking 'okay', you are CONSENTING to this.