Metre-stick

A metre-stick, metrestick (or meter-stick and meterstick as alternative spellings);[1] or yardstick[2] is either a straightedge or foldable ruler used to measure length, and is especially common in the construction industry.

The "tumstock" (literally "thumbstick", meaning "inch-stick") invented in 1883 by the Swedish engineer Karl-Hilmer Johansson Kollén was the first such hybrid stick,[citation needed] and was developed to help Sweden convert to the metric system.

Hybrid measures bearing customary markings on one side and metric units on the other also exist and are sometimes referred to as yardsticks, metre-whesticks[citation needed] or "metre rulers".

The folding carpenters' rulers used in Scandinavia are sometimes equipped with double measurements, metric and imperial on both sides, also functioning as a handy conversion table, accounting for its Scandinavian term: Tommestokk/tumstock (thumb (inch) stick),[4] a term with the same meaning that is also used in Dutch: duimstok.

Metre-sticks are also used as spars to make wings for remote-controlled model aircraft that are made from corrugated plastic.

Metre-sticks have been[vague] used as a method of corporal punishment in schools in the United Kingdom to slap the palms of students to bring them in order.