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When did a ruler become a variable?

Posted By margaret on February 21, 2011

Have you ever give any thought to when measurements are not an absolute but become a variable? It’s certainly not for me, right brain dominant, to ever question math or numbers, but the other day I got to thinking about how some things that one thinks should be absolute, just aren’t.

I sat down in the chair to have my hair cut and asked the hairdresser to cut it to mid ear and take off three quarters of an inch everywhere else. Give me a neckline in the back and all would be well. She took forever, and when she turned me around where I could see the mirror she was in the final stages of the haircut. That’s when the math absolute hit me. She was cutting off ¼” not ¾”, it was not mid ear and not a neckline. Forget the rest of the haircut, it was the ¼” that got to me.

Has it ever happened to you? Go to the meat counter and ask for meat to be cut 3/8” and get a strange look from the employee? I wonder if it is how we actually say it? If we say one fourth is it a true one forth? If we say a quarter of an inch does that mean something else? A quarter is a quarter whether it rolls or not. It’s is ¼ of a dollar. A quarter hour is ¼ of an hour, but somehow ¼” becomes something else. What if it’s written like .25? Does that make a difference?

It makes one wonder in what grade we were all taught to read a ruler? Maybe some of us were absent that day. How does ½” mean one thing to someone and totally different to someone else? It’s like the tick marks on a ruler move around. All of a sudden it’s a variable.

It becomes quite important when measuring for cooking and baking now doesn’t it? I totally messed up a cake mix once because I put in 1 1/3 cup oil instead of 1/3 cup. Ok, that doesn’t count as a variable. It counts as stupidity. But still, there’s a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper; what’s up with that?

Have you ever seen quilt patterns with the seam to be a “scant” quarter inch. What does “scant” mean? How much is a scant?

What about time? Fifteen minutes can be a short time or a long time. Five minutes of doing something you hate can feel like forever. Yet, it takes about 5 minutes to go through a yummy brownie and that must be shorter than 5 minutes. Five minutes should be 5 minutes no matter what, ¼” should be ¼” no matter what. Can you tell I’m ticked about the haircut? The other day I just cut it myself.

So it seems as if time, measurements, and absolutes in general are not so absolute after all; at least to the some of us. I don’t know, but I’m just sayin…

Categories: General
Tags: just for fun

Comments

2 Responses to “When did a ruler become a variable?”

Peggi says:

February 22, 2011 at 11:16 am

Well, I think we quilters are a special bunch, because we are one of the few “groups” who can eyeball measurements and get them right. Carpenters are another group. I knew a carpenter that could eyeball something, and determine that it was X inches long and had Y angle, and he’d be right every time.

I’m guessing your hairdresser doesn’t have a clue how much 3/4 of an inch is, much like most people, and MOST hairdressers cut very conservatively anyway, because they’re afraid of hearing “ohmygawd what did you just DO?!?!?!” They figure it’s better to cut it too long the first time and have to keep trimming until you’re happy, rather than cut it too short and risk making you mad.
Sarah says:

February 21, 2011 at 6:10 pm

This is so funny and so true. Having a background in carpentry, measurements are extremely important to me. I measure down to 1/16 or 1/32. Measurements to me in this regards are an absolute. Now when it comes to buying fabric, I am one who believes that “She who dies with the most fabric wins” and I need to catch up! So, when the pattern calls for 1/2 yard, why not just get a yard. So in that way, measurements are “ballpark”.