Comment Re:Leave the units alone (Score 1) 909
If you called it a "bob" then people would think of bob-wide walls. The convention is simply wrong. A 2x4 isn't within any realistic tolerance of 2"x4". They are all cut to a reasonable tolerance of 1.5"x3.5". So, wrong by 25%! It isn't like half the "2x4"s that one buys are larger then the described size.
Its marketing. Technology to cut wood [in a factory setting] got cleaner and more accurate over time. Lumbar lines could have gotten more accurate and closer to the actual advertised size, but at every opportunity to refine the standard, the actual size was reduced.
And "two inches less a sixteenth" in metric is easy. 74.6125 mm. Or if your example is really "how to say 1 minor tick less then the major ticks on this measuring device", "4 less 1" is 3.9.
Its marketing. Technology to cut wood [in a factory setting] got cleaner and more accurate over time. Lumbar lines could have gotten more accurate and closer to the actual advertised size, but at every opportunity to refine the standard, the actual size was reduced.
And "two inches less a sixteenth" in metric is easy. 74.6125 mm. Or if your example is really "how to say 1 minor tick less then the major ticks on this measuring device", "4 less 1" is 3.9.