[paulddraper]

Certainly.

Let's say you are centering a 2 1/4" board on a 22" frame.

The edges need to be 8 3/8" apart.

It's a lot more common to divide lengths in halves (and quarters, etc) than tenths.

[soligern]

But say you have to divide a 8 3/8” board into 5 parts. That turns into an ugly 771/40. What do you even do with that using an imperial measuring tape?

[paulddraper]

I have never needed to divide a board into 5 parts.

But if I did that would indeed be difficult.

[soligern]

I regularly need to divide to build bookshelves out of 4x8 plywood sheets.