Patent ID: 8478562

Claim:
A measuring instrument comprising: a fixed member; a movable member configured to be movable in relation to the fixed member, the movable member being movable over a movement stroke that is a complete distance over which the movable member is capable of moving; detecting means for detecting an amount of displacement of the movable member relative to the fixed member; a calculating section that calculates a measurement value from the amount of displacement detected by the detecting means; a display section that displays the measurement value calculated by the calculating section; and an operation section that issues a command to the calculating section, wherein a storage section stores an effective measurement range whose value are larger than a lower limit and smaller than an upper limit of the movement stroke of the movable member, the effective measurement range representing a maximum distance over which the measuring instrument can accurately make a measurement, and the calculating section determines whether or not the amount of displacement detected by the detecting means falls within the effective measurement range stored in the storage section and displays a result of the determination on the display section.