in elementary school, my teachers would say, “if you need a straight line use a ruler,” but how did they get a ruler to be straight? it must have come from a machine or something, but how did people get the first one?
one way I’m imagining it is if you stretch out a string taut you can get a straight line, but how was this applied to everything else that uses straight lines?
is there something in nature that is perfectly straight?
In: Engineering
Water levels are effectively straight over a human scale.
To *create* a straight edge tool, you simply mill and shave away at things multiple things compared to each other until they are straight. Imagine you have 2 planks. You place 1 and 2 against each other, and since neither is straight, there will be gaps. You note the high points which create these gaps, and cut them down with sanding and planing. You repeat this process until the two boards match.
You can also just fold a piece of paper in half.
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