If you grew up in America, meters and millimeters are basically a foreign language.  When I used to read a ruler growing up, I didn’t bother using the centimeter side. Actually, I didn’t even know why it was there. Thinking about it, the one on my desk now doesn’t even have centimeters (I should probably fix that). However, if you grew up on the other side of the pond (or anywhere else for that matter), the metric system is alive and well.

Well with International and North American wire size, it can be just as confusing. For North America, I never understood why as the wire got larger, the number got smaller. Why is 18 AWG smaller than a 10 AWG? Well, back in the day the gauge was determined by how many times the wire had to pass through the drawing dies. The smaller wire, such as 18 AWG, is going to have to pass through more times than the 10 AWG. Actually, makes sense, right? Continue reading American Wire Gauge vs. International Wire Size