What do you do when you can’t even trust a ruler?

Don’t judge me, but I often myself in situations where I need to measure things. I’m always needing to see if this or that object will fit inside this or that bag or compartment. I need to know if my smartphone is too wide to fit inside a certain pocket. Or is my laptop too long to fit inside my knapsack?

So I generally have some kind of measuring tape. I bought this tiny Rolson measuring tape at a hardware store recently. It even came in a two-pack. Then I bought the 6-inch plastic ruler in this picture. You never know when you might need a transparent ruler.

The problem? They don’t match. Six inches on the measuring tape is six and a quarter inches on the ruler. It’s a good thing I’m not building a house with these tools. And I have to wonder how in the world any kind of a factory, no matter how shoddy, can screw up the measurements on a ruler? Think about it. They’re making a tool for measuring, and they get the measurements on that tool wrong. That’s incompetence on a whole new level.