Avon
pfm Member
Another stupid question which probably has no answer: I need to measure 9.6 inches on a ruler. This would seem easier than measuring 243.8 mm. However, my ruler has subdivisions of 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64 of an inch. So that’s 9 inches and 38.4 sixty fourths, which is even more ungainly than using mm. I see “decimal inch” rulers are available, but these don’t seem to be the norm. Why am I unusual in wanting to measure tenths of an inch; there must be an historical reason for this, but what could it be? The usual answers I see are "it makes good sense to keep dividing by two" or "inches are not a decimal system". PS. It’s the required pivot to stylus point distance of my tonearm. 9.6" looks sensible, until you realise you can't measure it easily.