> it's marked in cm with mm divisions, but I always "read" it in mm

I think the only time I ever hear centimetres any more is in "the man
is described as stocky, 178cm tall and police say he should not be
approached". At one time they'd helpfully include "that's 5'10". I
can imagine 5'10" tall - I can't do 178cm

> Incidentally, do you use feet and inches down under?

Hmmm, "down under". Now there's somewhere that centimteres
sound so much more impressive

Well, people still say "mileage" (but not mpg - it's litres/100km). Don't
think "kilometreage" will ever catch on. "Six feet under" ? In general
NZ uses metric but I still keep a 10ths ruler handy for PCBs

> timber is in mm but using close approximations to the actual inch
> sizes so floorboards are 19x144, not 20x150)

I can still ask for and get 2 x 4 timber or an 8 x 4 panel (although
the assistant will invariably tell me that it's 2440 x 1220)

> and rulers and tape-measures have both.  I was a tad suprised
> that in the US tape measures only have inches - I thought they'd
> have both since they are "in the process of metrication", at least
> officially

My mother had a dress-making tape with both and that was bought
in the UK in the late 60s, just pre-dismalisation

I have a couple of steel rulers with 64ths, but use them only for
comparison measurements. That could be part of the problem.
An imperial ruler might have 5ths (you've reminded me of a
wooden ruler we used at school that had 5ths, aaah happy days),
10ths, 8ths, 16ths and so on. At least in mm you're going to be
using the same units as everyone else

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