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pie314isi | 3 years ago

If they don’t have a vernier scale they’re just calipers

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jameshart|3 years ago

I mean, from reading this the way they work is by detecting the relative offset of two slightly differently pitched scales by measuring a series of capacitances.

Honestly it’s a much more ‘vernier’-like mechanism than I’d given it credit for.

cmiller1|3 years ago

I've run into several older engineers that call all calipers "verniers." It used to bug me but I guess it's okay for language to be a bit flexible like that. I still call the shelf in front of me in my car the "dashboard" even though it's not blocking the rocks kicked up by a dashing horse anymore.

zrobotics|3 years ago

The reason this is annoying is that there are other measuring devices that can have a vernier scale though. For example, in my shop I have a cheap micrometer that only measures to thousandths of an inch, and a more expensive one with a vernier scale that measures to ten-thousandths. Offhand, height gauges also commonly have a vernier scale.

The reason this is annoying in a shop environment is that there are likely other tools around with a vernier scale. That being said, I've also been around older machinists & engineers who exclusively refer to gauge blocks as "jo blocks", even when there wasn't a single set manufactured by the Johansson company in the building. This is common enough that searching for "jo blocks" returns a dedicated page on mc-master: https://www.mcmaster.com/products/jo-blocks

dreamcompiler|3 years ago

Many years ago I did a stint at a big American car company. The engineers there were adamant that the shelf you speak of is properly called the "instrument panel." The "dashboard" is a sheet of steel that separates the passenger compartment from the engine compartment, and it's only accessible under the hood.

I guess this is a car engineer's version of "that thing you call the Internet is actually the web."

InitialLastName|3 years ago

A few years ago, I found myself needing ready access to disposable latex gloves in my car and was so happy to finally be able to use the "glove compartment" for its nominal purpose.

DanTheManPR|3 years ago

This must be a regionalism; I've never heard of them called "verniers" before.

somat|3 years ago

Was going to make the same comment, but was uncertain, so I read the article, it does look like it uses a vernier sort of mechanism to get much higher precision than a plain measurement would.

causality0|3 years ago

Thank you.

That was driving me nuts.

fortran77|3 years ago

No, that's what a socket set is used for.