How to Read a Tape Measure (Inches)

Video Transcript: Welcome to the ‘How to Read a Tape Measure’ badge. In this unit, we’ll focus on reading measurements in inches, an essential skill in a wide range of trades like manufacturing, carpentry, welding and electrical work. Whether you’re new to using a tape measure or looking to brush up on your skills, this video will guide you through the basics of reading and interpreting inch measurements.  Even if you’ve never used a tape measure before, don’t worry—you’ll get the hang of it in no time.  Now, you will be using fractions, but don’t worry if the math feels a little intimidating—we’ll break down how it works in simple terms so you can measure confidently and accurately.

Before we dive into reading measurements, let’s start by getting a sense of how big an inch actually is. An inch is about the width of my thumb.  This coin is about an inch wide. An inch is about as wide as four pencils laid side by side.

On Some tape measures, you may see these smaller marks. Those are for making metric measurements, we won’t be using those today. We will only use inches.

Let’s start by looking at whole inches.  Here you can see that each inch mark is labeled with a number. If our measurement is between two numbers, we will look at the smaller number. 

Here, our measurement will be two inches and something.  This measurement will be three inches and something.  Here our measurement is less than an inch, so it will just be a fraction.

Now let’s look at the marks that divide the inches into smaller bits.  Notice how each inch is marked at the halfway point.  Here is one half inch. Notice that this mark divides the inch into two equal parts. Each part is one half inch.  In this image, the measurement is two and a half inches, and here, the measurement is one and a half inches. We can write this as one and one half.  We write one half like this: one…over…two.  

One half is our first fraction.  Each inch is divided into two halves. The one on top of our fraction means that our mark is at one of those two sides. If we had two halves, it would be a whole inch.  This may make more sense as we keep going.  For now, let’s be sure you are following me.  I will show you a measurement, and you stop the video and write down your answer to see if you understand.

Here is the first measurement, pause the video and think about what the reading is. 

The reading is one and a half.  Did you get that?  Good.  Let’s move on. 

Here is another… the reading is just one half inch.  There are no whole inches to count, so we just say the fraction “one half.”

Now, let’s look at the next smaller marks.  Notice that each of the half inches is marked at their own halfway point.  These are the quarter or one-fourth inches. With these marks, the inch can be divided into four parts.  Each part is a quarter.  Notice that if we have two quarters, that is the same as one half.  Let’s look at how we can measure with the quarter inches.  I will remove all the small marks to make it easier to read.

Pause the video and have a look at this measurement. What is this reading?  The answer is two and one fourth inches or two and a quarter.

Now let’s look at a harder one.  Pause the video to be sure you have it right.  Take your time and if you’re not sure, just pause longer or rewind to go over it again. You’ve got this!

The measurement is one and three quarters of an inch, or one and three fourths. 

Let’s have a look at one more.  Pause the video to take some time to think about it.

This measurement is two and a half.  If you said two and two quarters that is true, but it is best to use the simpler, “half” inch, because two quarters is the same as one half.  It’s like this pie, if we cut it in half two ways, we have four slices of pie. If we take two of those, we have one half of the pie.

Now things are going to get a little more challenging. Tape measures take each of the quarter inches and divide them in two. These are called eighths of an inch.  You can see that the inch has now been divided into eight equal parts.

I’m going to put the smallest marks back on now, but we won’t talk about those just yet.

Here is one eighth, the next mark would be two eighths, but we already saw that was a quarter inch.  Here is three eighths, four eighths is a half, five eighths, six eighths is three quarters, here is seven eighths and finally eight eighths or one inch. 

Now I’ll give you a chance to try it. Pause the video and see if you can read the measurement…

The answer is two and one eighth inches.

Here is another.

This one is one and seven eights. See how close it is to two? You could say that two was eight eighths and then move to the left one mark to get seven eighths. 

Try this one.

The answer is one and five eighths. 

Here is another one.  This one is one and three quarters. We wouldn’t say six eighths.  A simple way to keep that straight is to look at the top number (or the numerator).  If the top number is even (like two, four, six, eight or ten), it means you can simplify the measurement.  This is not true of all fractions, but it will always be true on a tape measure or a ruler.

Now let’s do the hardest ones on this tape measure: The sixteenths.  When we divide the eighths of an inch in two, we can break the inch into sixteen pieces. On  many tape measures, these are the smallest divisions.  You use them just like the others.  Here, I’ll show you what I mean:

This is one and five sixteenths.  Here is the one inch mark, and we count one, two, three four, and five.  Now, we’ll want to be sure that we are reading sixteenths, so let’s count them to the halfway mark.  Six, seven, eight.  Half of 16 is eight, so now we are sure we are reading sixteenths. Sometimes, when reading sixteenths, it is easier to start counting from one of the quarter inch marks. Each of these is four, eight, and twelve of the sixteenths.

Here, I’ll show you: Four, eight, twelve, plus one is thirteen sixteenths. This measurement is thirteen sixteenths.

Now I’ll let you try a harder one on your own. Pause the video and really think about it. 

Ok, did you remember the whole inches? This is two inches and five sixteenths.  Let’s do one more. Pause the video.

The answer is one and 11 sixteenths. If you got that right, you can read any measurement on a tape measure like this one.  To get really good takes practice, and that’s what we’ll do in the rest of this module.  Take your time, it is difficult at first, but with practice, you can get really good at this.  Reading a tape measure is something that is an extremely useful skill in many trades.  Don’t give up! You can learn to do this.

If any part of this was tricky, feel free to go back and practice again. Getting really comfortable with a tape measure just takes a bit of practice, and you’ll get it!

Fractions and Decimals on an Inch Tape Measure

Fractions and Decimals on an Inch Tape Measure
Video Transcript: While fractions are commonly used in construction and furniture building, it is generally more common to use decimal parts of an inch in manufacturing. An example of a decimal part of an inch would be to use point five to represent one half inch, and point two five to represent one quarter inch. ...
Fractions and Decimals on an Inch Tape Measure

Fractions and Decimals on an Inch Tape Measure

Video Transcript: While fractions are commonly used in construction and furniture building, it is generally...