Play in rear axle normal?

[George_San_Jose1]

While not directly related to your car, you may find this informative

Checking Ford 9 inch differential play

Working on my Ford truck’s rear brakes the other day, got to wondering if there’s an easy way to measure the differential play caused by the ring gear not perfectly engaging with the pinion. It seems like you could assess this readily by putting transmission in neutral, jacking one rear wheel but leaving other on the ground, and measuring the distance you could turn the jacked-up rear wheel. Would that work, or are there complications?