How do I change Inches to Decimal Feet and Avoid Errors?
Bud Caldwell, one of the best Superintendents I ever worked with, taught me the value of changing inches into decimal feet. We were reviewing a shop drawing for a piece of equipment with lots of anchor bolts, and everything was in feet, inches and fractions of an inch. In his head, he quickly converted the inches and fractions of an inch into decimal feet, so we could easily add and check dimensions. He showed me a wonderful little trick of the trade that I’ve used for over 25 years. The inches to decimal feet conversion table shows illustrates the information. As you know, adding fractions challenges most of us. We probably learned the concept of lowest common denominator at some point, but struggle to remember how to actually use it. So to add feet and inches, we have to deal with fractions and with that 12″ in a foot concept, which means we have to add by hand, using pencil and paper. Special calculators for adding feet, inches and fractions of inches are available, but they always
