Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Decimal inches to fractional inches calculator

Need to convert decimal inches to fractional inches, rounded to your choice of any denominator from 2 to 1000? Go here: http://www2.whidbey.net/ohmsmath/webwork/javascript/decin2fr.html

When designing wooden furniture, most people in the U.S. use fractional inches as their metric.  There are plenty of reasons: we're used to the Imperial system, most of our tools use Imperial, fractional graduations, and much of the lumber we buy - most of all sheet goods - is measured in fractions of an inch.

This causes a problem for designers who like to adhere to certain ratios - such as the Golden Ratio - in their work.  I'm among those who often
need to calculate one dimension by taking the ratio of another dimension in the design.  The output of these calculations is a decimal, not a fraction, unless you have a dedicated fractional calculator on hand.  In order to complete the design, this decimal has to be converted into fractions of an inch.  What's more, the original dimension - on which the second measurement is based - often needs to be adjusted ever so slightly, so that the correct ratio is maintained, with both dimensions specified to a workable number - such as 16ths or 32nds of an inch. 

So I was happy to find this online calculator, which rounds off any decimal to fraction conversion for you.  Here it is, and thanks to the owner of the site.  Very useful!

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