QUESTION FOR A MEASURER: I received a submission yesterday and had a question for the measurer as follows:

As an initial question, you laid out a calibration course. On the first measurement you had a partial tape length of 21.64875 feet. What did the tape actually read? Was it graduated in feet & inches? Tenths of feet? Similarly, on the second measurement you had a partial length of 21.760417 feet. What did the tape actually read?

Nobody can read a tape to that degree of precision, so I suspect the readings have been converted from some other units, but for the life of me I can't figure out what.

I am wondering what sort of an answer I will receive. Can anybody cause these numbers to make sense? I am stumped.

The second one looks like it could be 21 feet 9 and an eighth inches. In that case the tape is probably marked in feet, inches and eighths, sixteenths or perhaps even thirty seconds of an inch.

If this assumption is true then the first one is close to 21 feet 7 and 25/32 inches, but is slightly off (less than 4 thou), so there must be an error in that reading or its conversion.

Message from the measurer:

"This is easily explained. The measurements were done in 1/8 inches,
the number of digits i due to the spread sheet.
But in looking it over , there is also a slight error in Measurement 1.

So, first, Measurement 2 is listed in my spreadsheet as 1321 + (9.125/12) feet. I.e. 9 +1/8 inches.

Measurement 1 is listed as 1321 + (7.785/12) feet. There is an error here. It should be 1321 + (7.875/12) feet (i.e. a 7 and an 8 were transposed. A frequent typo).
I.E. it is 1321 plus 7 and 7/8 inches."