It is too much to expect of workmen that bars will be accurately spaced when their distance apart is expressed in fractions of an inch. But it is a comparatively simple matter to require the workmen to space the bars evenly, provided it is accurately computed how many bars should be laid in a given width of slab. For example, in the above case, a panel of the flooring which is, say, 20 feet wide, should have a definite number of bars; 20 feet = 240 inches, and 240 ÷ 5.75 = 41.7. We shall call this 42, and instruct the workmen to distribute 42 bars equally in the panel 20 feet wide. The workmen can do this without even using a foot-rule, and can adjust them to an even spacing with sufficient accuracy for the purpose.