Today is International “World Standards Day”. We salute the experts around the world to take on the tasks of standardizing our calendars, clocks, volume measurements, and even Diameter tape measures. They provide for the efficient manufacturing and functioning of our planet. The metric system of CGS (centimeter, gram, second) and MKS (meter, kilogram, second) is the one used by all scientists and the residents of most countries. The Imperial system (inch, pound, second) is used in America, along with the metric system. Many of the packages in America use both systems.
Diameter tape measures are still made for each system, out of necessity. So, there are “2 standards”. Although most users prefer the metric system, a few Americans prefer the inch system. Even the “inch” diameter tape has 2 alternatives.
- Diameter in 100ths of an inch. This one is used more than the next one. It’s also easier to read, without having to convert to a fraction system. This one is strictly decimal. This makes the results easier to use in your other computations.
- Diameter in 64ths of an inch. This tape reads how many 64th of an inch the diameter is, if not precisely an even inch. You have to figure in your head that 48 64ths is really 3/4. And 56 64ths is really 7/8.