this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2025
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xkcd #3138: Dimensional Lumber Tape Measure

Title text:

A person with two watches is never sure what time it is, especially if I got them one of the watches.

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3138/

explainxkcd for #3138

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[–] Amuletta@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Modern lumber is planed, so some of that difference is because of losses from that. If you open up the walls of a house built 100+ years ago, you see these thick rough wall studs that never went through a planer. Even with shrinking, it's close to being actual 2" x 4".