The grid on a ruler

Sam Woodward

A colleague has just asked me this, and I don't know.... but I guess someone here might: Some transparent plastic rulers have a grid area of fairly fine horizontal and vertical gradations in a section at one end. Does anyone know what those are used for? Thanks, Sam W

David Wulff

Playing around with some different queries on Google I found a couple that were along this line: " These rulers allow you to lay the ruler over the edge and see what you are marking. The grid marks help to keep things aligned straight while marking. " Maybe that is why? I've seen some rulers with the grid all the way down the centre, and others with just a couple of inches at one end (the one I have here is like that, with the logo on the other). It might be for judging simple angles too?

Ðavid Wulff Audioscrobbler :: flickr Die Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen (QT)

Roger Wright

A finer scale grid can be useful to help you interpolate a measurement that falls between the markings on the main scale. That assumes, of course, that you have some way of knowing the scale of the finer grid.:) "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley

V 0

eg. drawing paralell lines... No hurries, no worries.