Terry wrote: >I did once obtain an 18 inch ruler. That was about >the longest that I wanted. I did not really need it >and I hardly used it. I just liked owning >it because of stationery one-upmanship.
We used meter sticks all the time in high school and university classes. I bought about 5 of them a year ago for home use, and they are very handy. I've measured the dimensions of my apartment and furniture, I have one taped to the wall so people can see how tall they are, I used it to measure the circumference of my bike tire to program its computer, it is a useful straight-edge for large diagrams or whatever, etc. A meter stick is a lot more useful that a tape measure or ruler for some things because it is cheap, flat, and rigid. Ever tried to measure furniture or rooms with a ruler? Who would tape a tape measure to the wall to measure height? You can put a meter stick on the floor or in a vise to measure things in a physics class. They are very handy if you do anything like these examples. Growing up, I made a scale model of my room and furniture to help me figure out how to re-arrange it. That was with a yardstick, of course, back when I used feet and inches. Carl
