# How do I read THIS vernier scale?



## dzarren (Feb 5, 2021)

Hello there, I am experiencing a little bit of confusion regarding this vernier scale on these calipers I just got.

The verniers I've come across before typically divide into tens or something, and makes more sense intuitively to me, than this one.

On the top metric scale, I see there are 50 divisions in the space of 49, so does that mean that this can measure down to a resolution of 1/50th of a millimeter?
I just look to see which lines up, and that tells me how many 1/50ths of a mm I would be adding to the reading? this makes sense to me, I think, please correct me!


but I am more confused about the lower imperial scale. there are also 50 divisions, but it lines up with the 2.450 reading?
That's also 50 divisions in the space of 49?
does this mean it can measure down to 1/50th of the smallest division? Here the inches are divided into 1/20ths of an inch, so i can read down to 1/50th of 1/20th of an inch, so does that mean it measures thou?

Thank you!


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## Superburban (Feb 5, 2021)

Yes, theoretically down to the 1000s  First digit is the main inch. 1, 2, what ever. Then you get the tenths the normal way, buy the 10th divisions. Then drop down to the smaller line, if you are between the tenth, and the smaller line, add. .oo5 to the next reading. start at the zero, and look for the line that lines up with another line. In this case, it is the zero, and the 50 thou. We know it is not the 50 thou, so it has to be the zero.

The real issue, is how close can one read the lines? yes, with lots of practice, one might get a good thousandth reading, but in reality ???

A good rule of thumb I learned way back, is look at the first readings, and estimate by the distance what the end result should be. If your final answer is close, then good, if not start again.


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## JimDawson (Feb 5, 2021)

The top scale looks like 1mm divisions, with the vernier able to interpolate to 0.02mm or about 0.001''

The lower scale looks like 0.05'' divisions, with the vernier able to interpolate to 0.001 inch.


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## mickri (Feb 5, 2021)

On your caliper each line is .050 apart.  The lines are 0.000, 0.050, 0.100, 0.150 and so on.  If you moved the caliper between say the 0.150 and 0.200 lines then you would add the reading on the vernier to 0.015 to get your measurement.  If the reading on the vernier was 27 then you would add 27 to .150 which equals .177.


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