You can buy these with a calibration certificate for like $70, but I skipped the cert. Should be the same quality, cost me $16. I chose the version with the superior units of measurement.

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    34·
    9 days ago

    These are annoying as hell. You can’t pick a system and then just go because you always end up measuring with both sides of the tape depending on how things are oriented, so now you have one side that isn’t useful.

    Just get a metric tape when you need a metric tape and vice versa. The dual tapes are for housewives.

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 days ago

      Oh don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer a simply metric one, it’s just I think there’s still a generally* generational divide here between metric and imperial, so your standard hardware shop seems to stock the dual measurement kind.

      *Interestingly around my age (mid/early-millennial) some people use imperial for measuring their height & similar measurements and metric for most other things. I’m not sure how far back and forward that behaviour goes

      • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        9 days ago

        You don’t want to go down that road in Canada. We’ve had the metric system for 50 years now and the way we measure things around here is schizophrenic.

        There’s 3 systems; imperial, metric, and time. And you might measure the same thing in all three depending on the magnitude of the measurement. Very short distances are in mm and cm, a little more is in inches and feet (height, carpentry), then miles because our rural road grid is laid out in miles, then kilometers because the highway is all signposted in metric, then minutes and hours because the distance between towns and cities isn’t relevant when you account for weather.

        “Barrhead is about 2 hours north, when you get to the end of town, go 20km until you get to a 4 ways stop. Go 4 miles north and turn left. About 200 meters from the corner will be a driveway, turn in there and about 40 feet in you’ll want to park and walk from there.”