*What's a Gauge... for wires???*
By Sitkastan
(10/14/2002)
With a lot of the Rubies setting up in Solar energy a few questions have arisen regarding wire and gauge measurements.

 A Gauge is the traditional unit measuring the diameter (or the cross-sectional area) of a wire. 

Various wire gauge scales have been used in the U.S. and Britain. In traditional scales, larger gauge numbers represent thinner wires. 

In the American Wire Gauge (AWG) scale, 0000 gauge represents a wire having a diameter of 0.46inch and 36 gauge represents a diameter of 0.005 inch (5mils). 

Diameters for the other gauges are obtained by geometric interpolation, meaning that the ratio between successive diameters is a constant, except for necessary round off. Thus n gauge wire has a diameter of .005·92((36-n)/39) inch (gauges 00, 000, and 0000 are interpreted as -1, -2, and -3, respectively, in this calculation).

The metric wire gauge number is equal to 10 times the diameter of the wire, in millimeters; thus a metric 8 gauge wire has diameter 0.8 millimeters.

Whoaaa Nelly, I don’t know about you but I don’t have a masters degree in engineering and my math is still pretty much limited to making change. 

Well lucky for me and you there is a table provided by Engineering Zone (now called myB2O.com)

 

American and British Wire Gauges

Gauge

Washburn  & Moen

British Imperial Standard (S.W.G.)

Birmingham or Stubs

American (A.W.G.) or Brown & Sharpe

7/0

.4900"

.500"

---

---

6/0

.4615"

.464"

---

.5800"

5/0

.4305"

.432"

.500"

.5165"

4/0

.3938"

.400"

.454"

.4600"

3/0

.3625"

.372"

.425"

.4096"

2/0

.3310"

.348"

.380"

.3648"

1/0

.3065"

.324"

.340"

.3249"

1

.2830"

.300"

.300"

.2893"

2

.2625"

.276"

.284"

.2576"

3

.2437"

.252"

.259"

.2294"

4

.2253"

.232"

.238"

.2043"

5

.2070"

.212"

.220"

.1819"

6

.1920"

.192"

.203"

.1620"

7

.1770"

.176"

.180"

.1442"

8

.1620"

.160"

.165"

.1284"

9

.1483"

.144"

.148"

.1144"

10

.1350"

.128"

.134"

.1018"

11

.1205"

.116"

.120"

.0907"

12

.1055"

.104"

.109"

.0808"

13

.0915"

.092"

.095"

.0719"

14

.0800"

.080"

.083"

.0640"

15

.0720"

.072"

.072"

.0570"

16

.0625"

.064"

.065"

.0508"

17

.0540"

.056"

.058"

.0452"

18

.0475"

.048"

.049"

.0403"

19

.0410"

.040"

.042"

.0358"

20

.0348"

.036"

.035"

.0319"

21

.0317"

.032"

.032"

.0284"

22

.0286"

.028"

.028"

.0253"

23

.0258"

.024"

.025"

.0225"

24

.0230"

.022"

.022"

.0201"

25

.0204"

.020"

.020"

.0179"

26

.0181"

.018"

.018"

.0159"

27

.0173"

.0164"

.016"

.0141"

28

.0162"

.0148"

.014"

.0126"

29

.0150"

.0136"

.013"

.0112"

30

.0140"

.0124"

.012"

.0100"

31

.0132"

.0116"

.010"

.0089"

32

.0128"

.0108"

.009"

.0079"

33

.0118"

.0100"

.008"

.0070"

34

.0104"

.0092"

.007"

.0063"

35

.0095"

.0084"

.005"

.0056"

36

.0090"

.0076"

.004"

.0050"

37

.0085"

.0068"

---

.0044"

38

.0080"

.0060"

---

.0039"

39

.0075"

.0052"

---

.0035"

40

.0070"

.0048"

---

.0031"

41

.0066"

.0044"

---

.00280"

42

.0062"

.0040"

---

.00249"

43

.0060"

.0036"

---

.00222"

44

.0058"

.0032"

---

.00198"

45

.0055"

.0028"

--

.00176"

46

.0052"

.0024"

---

.00157"

47

.0050"

.0020"

---

.00140"

48

.0048"

.0016"

---

.00124"

49

.0046"

.0012"

--

.00111"

50

.0044"

.0010"

--

.00099"

 

Sitkastan

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