Actually had a colleague who determined distances on microscopy images that way. She would measure the scale bar included in the image with her ruler on the screen, measure the distance she was interested in and calculate the distance using the rule of three. I mean, why bother using the measuring tool included in the software.

[–] sznio@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've heard of people printing out charts, then cutting out the part they wanted to calculate an integral of, then weighing the paper.

[–] siipale@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

I've heard of it too. You would need an analytical balance to get accurate measurements weighing a piece of paper. Just cut out the part you want to take an integral of, then cut out a piece of paper with known size (or cut several pieces with different sizes to get more accurate results) and weigh each of them. I guess this used to be cheaper and faster than using computers when computers were big and expensive.