A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away happy.

So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.

So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the futre making a 1 metre version.

On Mon, 27 Mar 2023 07:49:10 -0700 (PDT), whisky-dave
<whisky.dave@gmail.com> wrote:

> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away happy.
>
> So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.
>
> So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the futre making a 1 metre version.

Maybe interesting but hardly necessary. Even a cheap laser measure device
should be good for ±2mm for up to 50m.

On Mon, 27 Mar 2023 07:49:10 -0700 (PDT), whisky-dave
<whisky.dave@gmail.com> wrote:

> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
>So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away happy.
>
>So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.
>
>So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the futre making a 1 metre version.
>
>
>
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2jnzsurh or RS
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/calipers/1230916 or
Ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301670811638

--
Chris

On Tue, 28 Mar 2023 01:49:10 +1100, whisky-dave <whisky.dave@gmail.com>
wrote:

> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our
> 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use
> thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away
> happy.
>
> So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a
> display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.

There are plenty of digital tape measures.

> So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in
> the futre making a 1 metre version.

Plenty of those buyable now.

On 27-Mar-23 20:06, Rod Speed wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Mar 2023 01:49:10 +1100, whisky-dave <whisky.dave@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>  A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of
>> our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how
>> to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.

"I don't know how to use this" ??? WTF?

>> So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went
>> away happy.
>>
>> So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a
>> display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.
>
> There are plenty of digital tape measures.

You can use your phone to do stuff like this now. That's one 'tool'
that kids really do seem to understand[1].

[1] My phone uses Lidar to measure stuff, but ICBA to bother with it.

--
Sam Plusnet

On Mon, 27 Mar 2023 07:49:10 -0700 (PDT), whisky-dave
<whisky.dave@gmail.com> wrote:
> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
>So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away happy.
>
>So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.
>
>So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the futre making a 1 metre version.
>
>
Why not teach him how to use the wooden ruler - a new addition to his
skill set, attractive to employers!
--
Dave W

How do these telephone measures work?
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"whisky-dave" <whisky.dave@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:4aae99b2-2706-4dd3-868e-32f7ae8cc724n@googlegroups.com...
> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our
> 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use
> thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away
> happy.
>
> So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display,
> couldn't find anything above 30cm.
>
> So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the
> futre making a 1 metre version.
>
>
>
>

On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away happy.
>
> So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.
>
> So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the futre making a 1 metre version.

They are available but are (to my mind anyway) far too expensive .
The examples given 'else thread' seem to be just under £400 to £2000.

Learning establishments may not fret over spending two grand on an item
but would YOU be happy handing over a two grand bit of kit to a student?

WTF needs 100th of a millimetre precision (I was going to put accuracy
there but relatively cheap ones may only be accurate to a tenth of a
milimetre) over a metre?

Better to teach/show the students how to use wooden rulers (a trivial
but necessary skill).

soup wrote:

> They are available but are (to my mind anyway) far too expensive .
> The examples given 'else thread' seem to be just under £400 to £2000.

There's a 500mm version on AliExpress for £57 which doesn't seem too bad?

<https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002316308166.html>

On 28/03/2023 10:37, Brian Gaff wrote:
> How do these telephone measures work?

They take a video of the thing you are measuring going past the lens.

They can estimate how far the camera is from the target by comparing
movement in the centre of the image with movement at the edge.

Given that they can work out how far the centre of the image has moved.

Andy

Andy Burns wrote:

> There's a 500mm version on AliExpress for £57 which doesn't seem too bad?
>
> <https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002316308166.html>

Plus a 1000mm for £157

<https://aliexpress.com/item/32958340176.html>

On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 10:37:41 UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:

Not very well for small distancies from what I've heard.

I assukme triangllation methods from the dual lenses of digital camera or lidar

> How do these telephone measures work?
> Brian
>
> --
>
> --:
> This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
> The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
> bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
> Blind user, so no pictures please
> Note this Signature is meaningless.!
> "whisky-dave" <whisk...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:4aae99b2-2706-4dd3...@googlegroups.com...
> > A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our
> > 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use
> > thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> > So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away
> > happy.
> >
> > So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display,
> > couldn't find anything above 30cm.
> >
> > So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the
> > futre making a 1 metre version.
> >
> >
> >
> >

On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 11:43:33 UTC+1, Andy Burns wrote:
> Andy Burns wrote:
>
> > There's a 500mm version on AliExpress for £57 which doesn't seem too bad?
> >
> > <https://aliexpress.com/item/1005002316308166.html>
> Plus a 1000mm for £157
>
> <https://aliexpress.com/item/32958340176.html>

cheers but they don;t like us or ordering from aliexpress but the prices are OK.

the only one I found was a 600mm from farnell, at £1, 100

https://onecall.farnell.com/mitutoyo/570-304/height-gauge-600mm/dp/1361394?st=calipers

On Monday, 27 March 2023 at 22:12:17 UTC+1, Dave W wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Mar 2023 07:49:10 -0700 (PDT), whisky-dave
> <whisk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> >So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away happy.
> >
> >So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.
> >
> >So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the futre making a 1 metre version.
> >
> >
> Why not teach him how to use the wooden ruler

I'd have thought they'd know that from school having A-levels in physics maths etc.
But don;t forget that these studetn sare from the covid years so don;t have much experience doing anything that can't be domne on a keyboard and on-line.

> - a new addition to his
> skill set, attractive to employers!

Don't think you need any skills at management levels
> --
> Dave W

soup <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:
> On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
> > A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> > So I gave him a set of calipers 15cm with a LCD display and he went away happy.
> >
> > So I tried to find a larger/longer version must be digital with a display, couldn't find anything above 30cm.
> >
> > So wonderign if any exist as this could make an interesting project in the futre making a 1 metre version.
>
> They are available but are (to my mind anyway) far too expensive .
> The examples given 'else thread' seem to be just under £400 to £2000.

I had a need for such a thing (measuring the distance between lots of
awkward joists: 400mm +/- lots), and bought a £4 set of 150mm digital
calipers and made a 350mm stick to nail on the end. Plans changed and I
didn't need it for that job - but a new plan is a digital angle measure
(Trend 500mm, about £25) and some trig.

Theo

On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
I must have misunderstood ... please tell me that you aren't saying that
a secondary school kid in the UK doesn't know how to use a ruler ...
.... snipped

On Wed, 29 Mar 2023 03:15:38 +1100, <nothanks@aolbin.com> wrote:

> On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
>> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of
>> our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how
>> to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> I must have misunderstood ... please tell me that you aren't saying that
> a secondary school kid in the UK doesn't know how to use a ruler ...

Their students are mostly foreign students.

On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 17:15:44 UTC+1, noth...@aolbin.com wrote:
> On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
> > A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> I must have misunderstood ... please tell me that you aren't saying that
> a secondary school kid in the UK doesn't know how to use a ruler ...

Well 2nd year university student designing a search and rescue robot.
I think he wanted to measure the diameter of the axels for ordering wheels and which axel or motor & wheel would fit.
I have a stock of axels which they can have which are 3.2mm, 2.8mm or 1.8mm in diameter.
But I'll also order anything within reason they request.
So I can understand why he might not be able to use a 1/2m wooden ruler which is only divided into mm scale.

My main point is that they don't always know what they need or want or how to corectly describe somethiing.
I'd like to think we are here to education the students, but it seems we now spend longer making sure we have the 'correct' balance of
Female, BAME and LTGBQ+ ratios than we spend on educating.

The same student used our plastic calipers (supplied free by Anglia electronic components) for measuring something else as the digital ones were in use by another student.
He measured something and it was 12mm then he tried the 'digital' ones and it measured 11.3mm .
he asked me which was the correct, I just said think about it.

We do have a set of micrometers https://onecall.farnell.com/linear-tools/50-730-001/micrometer-electronic-0-25mm-0/dp/2102056?ost=2102056
It measures to an accuracy of 0.001mm but the last time I lent those out they came back with a
cracked LCD display but still working. So I only give those out when I think they are actually needed.

> ... snipped

On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 22:37:17 UTC+1, Rod Speed wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Mar 2023 03:15:38 +1100, <noth...@aolbin.com> wrote:
>
> > On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
> >> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of
> >> our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how
> >> to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> > I must have misunderstood ... please tell me that you aren't saying that
> > a secondary school kid in the UK doesn't know how to use a ruler ...
> Their students are mostly foreign students.

You're foreign, so yes that can explain it.

On 29/03/2023 12:28, whisky-dave wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 17:15:44 UTC+1, noth...@aolbin.com wrote:
>> On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
>>> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
>> I must have misunderstood ... please tell me that you aren't saying that
>> a secondary school kid in the UK doesn't know how to use a ruler ...
>
> Well 2nd year university student designing a search and rescue robot.
> I think he wanted to measure the diameter of the axels for ordering wheels and which axel or motor & wheel would fit.
> I have a stock of axels which they can have which are 3.2mm, 2.8mm or 1.8mm in diameter.
> But I'll also order anything within reason they request.
> So I can understand why he might not be able to use a 1/2m wooden ruler which is only divided into mm scale.
>
> My main point is that they don't always know what they need or want or how to corectly describe somethiing.
> I'd like to think we are here to education the students, but it seems we now spend longer making sure we have the 'correct' balance of
> Female, BAME and LTGBQ+ ratios than we spend on educating.
>
>
> The same student used our plastic calipers (supplied free by Anglia electronic components) for measuring something else as the digital ones were in use by another student.
> He measured something and it was 12mm then he tried the 'digital' ones and it measured 11.3mm .
> he asked me which was the correct, I just said think about it.
>
> We do have a set of micrometers https://onecall.farnell.com/linear-tools/50-730-001/micrometer-electronic-0-25mm-0/dp/2102056?ost=2102056
> It measures to an accuracy of 0.001mm but the last time I lent those out they came back with a
> cracked LCD display but still working. So I only give those out when I think they are actually needed.
>
>
>
>
>> ... snipped
I despair, so these are engineering under-grads(!!!) who don't know
something as fundamental as how to measure objects?
Teach them to wrap a piece of paper round the axle, mark the overlap
point, unroll and measure the distance between the marks, then multiply
it by 7 and divide by 22. If my aged (engineering grad) brain is working
correctly your diameters should give circumferences of around 10, 8.5
and 6 ... easily differentiated (and I don't mean calculus).

Mention of the C word makes me wonder whether modern engineering studes
would understand how to evaluate triple integrals in spherical
coordinates - I did once, have never used it, and wouldn't know where to
begin now :-(

On Wednesday, 29 March 2023 at 14:54:50 UTC+1, noth...@aolbin.com wrote:
> On 29/03/2023 12:28, whisky-dave wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 28 March 2023 at 17:15:44 UTC+1, noth...@aolbin.com wrote:
> >> On 27/03/2023 15:49, whisky-dave wrote:
> >>> A student came to me asking to borrow a ruler, so I gave him one of our 0.5M wooden rulers, he looked at it and then said I dont know how to use thios can I have the electronic ruler.
> >> I must have misunderstood ... please tell me that you aren't saying that
> >> a secondary school kid in the UK doesn't know how to use a ruler ...
> >
> > Well 2nd year university student designing a search and rescue robot.
> > I think he wanted to measure the diameter of the axels for ordering wheels and which axel or motor & wheel would fit.
> > I have a stock of axels which they can have which are 3.2mm, 2.8mm or 1.8mm in diameter.
> > But I'll also order anything within reason they request.
> > So I can understand why he might not be able to use a 1/2m wooden ruler which is only divided into mm scale.
> >
> > My main point is that they don't always know what they need or want or how to corectly describe somethiing.
> > I'd like to think we are here to education the students, but it seems we now spend longer making sure we have the 'correct' balance of
> > Female, BAME and LTGBQ+ ratios than we spend on educating.
> >
> >
> > The same student used our plastic calipers (supplied free by Anglia electronic components) for measuring something else as the digital ones were in use by another student.
> > He measured something and it was 12mm then he tried the 'digital' ones and it measured 11.3mm .
> > he asked me which was the correct, I just said think about it.
> >
> > We do have a set of micrometers https://onecall.farnell.com/linear-tools/50-730-001/micrometer-electronic-0-25mm-0/dp/2102056?ost=2102056
> > It measures to an accuracy of 0.001mm but the last time I lent those out they came back with a
> > cracked LCD display but still working. So I only give those out when I think they are actually needed.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> ... snipped
> I despair, so these are engineering under-grads(!!!) who don't know
> something as fundamental as how to measure objects?

Not sure which course(s) cover such things, this is one of the first practical units they take where they have to
work out things all by themselves in a group of 4-5

> Teach them to wrap a piece of paper round the axle, mark the overlap
> point, unroll and measure the distance between the marks, then multiply
> it by 7 and divide by 22. If my aged (engineering grad) brain is working
> correctly your diameters should give circumferences of around 10, 8.5
> and 6 ... easily differentiated (and I don't mean calculus).

Or even easier go to the website and it tells you all the details you could wish for.

>
> Mention of the C word makes me wonder whether modern engineering studes
> would understand how to evaluate triple integrals in spherical
> coordinates - I did once, have never used it, and wouldn't know where to
> begin now :-(

If there's a utube or tiktok on it then the answer would be yes. ;-)

On 29/03/2023 14:54, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:

>>

> I despair, so these are engineering under-grads(!!!) who don't know
> something as fundamental as how to measure objects?

I think him saying he "couldn't use this" was more a case of this was
unfit for purpose rather than he didn't know how to use it.
Imagine using a 0.5 metre long piece of wood marked in mm increments
to measure something in the 1.5 ~ 3.5 mm range.

nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
> I despair, so these are engineering under-grads(!!!) who don't know
> something as fundamental as how to measure objects?

TBH engineering degrees are not always synonymous with practical skills.
Maybe they can solve beam load calculations to N decimal places, or do
vector calculus in spherical polar coordinates, but using hand tools is not
always something they've been exposed to - for some engineering is
effectively 'applied physics'. Which is effectively what those civil
engineers will be doing when they graduate too - they aren't pouring the
concrete themselves.

('Engineering' at school OTOH is rather more practical - a bit more like
metalwork classes of old. More useful for trainee mechanics than civil
engineers)

> Teach them to wrap a piece of paper round the axle, mark the overlap
> point, unroll and measure the distance between the marks, then multiply
> it by 7 and divide by 22. If my aged (engineering grad) brain is working
> correctly your diameters should give circumferences of around 10, 8.5
> and 6 ... easily differentiated (and I don't mean calculus).

Yes, the point of university is to learn things, and that includes practical
techniques. So give them a ruler, a pen, some paper and turn it into a
problem for them to solve.

> Mention of the C word makes me wonder whether modern engineering studes
> would understand how to evaluate triple integrals in spherical
> coordinates - I did once, have never used it, and wouldn't know where to
> begin now :-(

In the Cambridge course it's second year material.

Theo