Can you measure height with an ordinary ruler?

Question

I marked my height on the wall and measured each foot then inch from the ground with an ordinary ruler? is it accurate?

Answer 1

Yes and no.  What I mean by this is that an ordinary ruler is 12 inches or 1 foot long.  So yes it would be accurate by placing the ruler flat against the wall and slowly making your way up to the mark.  However, human error would throw off your exact height.  For instance, if you accidently bumped the ruler while measuring, then the height would not be completely exact, but still pretty close.

Answer 2

It can be, if you're careful, and if your ruler is accurate. I mark my height, and then I put a tack or a nail firmly in the mark and hang a string from it. Fasten the string to the floor or lower wall while making sure it's straight. Mark the string with each unit on the ruler. I have 12" and 36" rulers. I'm from Italy, so I use metric measurements, but in America, I learned the English system, so my 165 cm height converts to about 5'5" here.

Answer 3

It is accurate if ruler have correct inches,centimeter,milimeter marking.

Answer 4

It will be reasonably accurate.  Just be sure to measure against a straight and plumb (completely vertical) line, otherwise you will measure a wavy line, which will be a longer length.

The other thing to watch out for is that most times rulers are longer than 12 inches.  The marks end before the end of the ruler -- so if you just measure end to end you might pick up 1/16 for each foot.  That's still less than 1/2" error if you are 6ft tall, so not too much of a problem.