alt Hacker NewsTrying not to be too negative but this is quite a long blog post for what effectively just comes down to using a piece of paper to measure something, which I imagine lots of us have done in a pinch. Also, nit: one of the calculations on paper size seems duplicated due to a typo.
Replies
MinimalAction • last Wednesday at 6:50 PM
But this is also quite cool! These kind of articles are what makes HN interesting and fun.
Personally I make sure to always carry around a string and some scissors, so any time I need an arbitrary measurement I can just cut the string to the length of the thing I want to measure (making sure to label it in case of multiple required measurements), then measure the cut string later. Simple.
Although I still haven't figured out the best way to do that in reverse (when someone wants a specific measurement and I cut the string from that number), though I was considering a scheme where I start with strings of known length up-front then repeatedly cut successive halves until I converge on the desired number, accounting for cut accuracy and require precision.