How to read tape measure

Everyone uses tape measures in their life, be it in school or in their professions. Tape measures can prove to be very essential for tailors, wood workers, interior decorators and students. Such tools are useful and a handy asset for everyone. Standard tape measures can be anything like inches, feet and yard or even in metric units or it can be in both types of measurements. In some measuring devices the inches can be divided into 16 or even 32 parts. The division is necessary as it can be used to measure very precise dimensions. There are tapes available which show that each centimeter is equal to 10 millimeters by the division of one centimeter into 10 parts. Meters shown on such scales are divided into 100 parts as 100 centimeter equals 1 meter. Read the steps given below to find out how to read tape measure.

Complexity Level: Basic

Time required: Few seconds

Resources required:

1. A measuring tape with inches measures

2. A measuring tape with metric measures

3. A led pencil

4. A paper

Instructions:

1. Using tape measure in inches:

a. Start with drawing a line:
Draw a horizontal line on a sheet of paper making sure that the line is straight.

b. Place the measuring tape along the line:
The measuring tape needs to be placed along the horizontal line. The tape needs to start from the left end of the line and placed along the length of the line till the end of the line. The line will end on one of the marks on the measuring tape.

c. Mark the nearest long mark on the tape:
The mark where the line ends will have the nearest long mark on the measuring tape. Mark that nearest long mark. It will help you locate the inch.

d. Count the small marks:
Now start counting the small marks from the left to the end of the line drawn by you. If your line ends at 1 mark and the measuring tape that you are using divides the inch into 16 parts then the measure from the left long line is 1/16 and if the rest of the line is 11 inches then the measure of the line is 11 1/16 inches.

2. Using tape measures in metric units:

a. Steps 1 and 2 of the above need to be repeated.

b. Mark the centimeter first:
Make a note of the long line at the left end of the line (it will note a number as a centimeter on the line).

c. Count the small marks and measure:
Start counting the small marks between the big marks from the left to the end of the line. Every small mark is one millimeter. If the left end of the line ends after three small lines it is 3 millimeters and if the measure of the entire line is 9 centimeters the total length of your line will be 9.3 centimeters.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Which devices are commonly used to take measurements?
Measuring devices are used very commonly in almost every profession or even normal household use. They can be used by carpenters, by tailors, by painters or by you for a number of reasons. Given below are the devices used very commonly.

1. A standard retractable steel tape. This is the most popular measuring device used for measuring small distances inside the house or even outside the house.
2. Inside and outside diameters are measured by pocket calipers.
3. Carpenters’ rules or folding rules or even zigzag rules are used to mark lines with their firm edges as they are either made up of wood or metal.
4. Laser tapes are modern tapes that give you the accurate measurement. It is a faster and accurate means of measurement.
5. Even digital tapes give you the exact measurements. They have built-in memory to record measurements and volumes. They also do additions and subtractions for you.

Quick tips:
1. Most of the measuring tapes have inches divided into 16 parts, which means each line symbolizes 1/16.
2. Many measuring tapes have the same measuring units on both the sides of the tape.
3. Contract measurement tapes are tapes that cannot measure larger areas. The body of the tape or the case of the tape obstructs your vision and it gets difficult for you to measure. If you check the case of such tapes it will give you a measurement. Most of them have 3” from one corner of the room to the other.
4. Metric measuring tape is easier to use. Metric measurement is not as common as linear measurements. It can get confusing and you might have to use calculators to convert the measurements.

Things to watch out for:
Different system of measurements are a base of metric measurement tapes, hence it would not work exactly the same for these tapes.

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