American wire gauge (AWG), also known as the "Brown and Sharpe" wire gauge, is used in the United States and other countries as a standard method of denoting wire diameter, especially for nonferrous, electrically conducting wire. The steel industry uses a different numbering system for their wire thickness gages (e.g. W&M Wire Gage or US Steel Wire Gage or the different Music Wire Gage) so data below does not apply to steel wire. A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, elongated strand of drawn metal. ... Lightning strikes during a night-time thunderstorm. ... Electrical conduction is the movement of electrically charged particles through matter. ...

Increasing gauge numbers give decreasing wire diameters, which is similar to many other non-metric gauging systems. This seemingly-counterintuitive numbering is derived from the fact that the gauge number is related to the number of drawing operations that must be used to produce a given gauge of wire; very fine wire (for example, 30 gauge) requires far more passes through the drawing dies than does 0 gauge wire. Cover of brochure The International System of Units. ... A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, elongated strand of drawn metal. ... A die is a tool used in the manufacturing industry to create a wide variety of products and components. ...

Note that for gauges 5 through about 14, the wire gauge is effectively the number of bare solid wires that, when placed side by side, span 1 inch. That is, 8 gauge is about 1/8" in diameter.

In the same fashion, AWG is also commonly used to specify body piercing jewelry sizes, especially smaller sizes.[1] A bead ring, also known as a captive bead ring. ...

Formulas

By definition, No. 36 AWG is 0.005 inches diameter, and No. 0000 is 0.46 inches diameter. The ratio of these sizes is 92, and between them are 38 sizes, with equal ratios between each adjacent pair of sizes. (Sizes with multiple zeros are sucessively larger than No. 0 and can be denoted using "number of zeros/0", e.g. 5/0 for 00000.) Therefore, the diameter of a No. n AWG wire is

and its cross-section area is

.

For an m/0 AWG wire, use n = −(m−1) in the above formulas. For instance for No. 0000 or 4/0, use n = -3.

The ratio between successive sizes is the 39th root of 92, or approximately 1.1229322. [2]

The sixth power of this ratio is very close to 2, which means for an increase in 6 gauge numbers, the wire diameter is changed by a ratio of two (No. 10 is about one-half the diameter of No. 4 AWG). A decrease of three gauge numbers doubles the area of a wire. A decrease of 10 gauge numbers, for example from No. 10 to 1/0, multiplies the area and weight by approximately 10 and reduces the resistance by approximately 10.

Table of AWGs and approximate corresponding sizes

The table below shows various data including both the resistance of the various wire gauges and the allowable current (ampacity) based on plastic insulation. The diameter information in the table applies to solid wires. Stranded wires are calculated by calculating the equivalent cross-sectional copper area. The table below assumes DC or frequencies equal to or less than 60 Hz, and does not take skin effect into account. American wire gauge (AWG) is used in the United States and other countries as a standard method of denoting wire diameter, especially for non-ferrous, electrically conducting wire. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Cross section may refer to the following In geometry, Cross section is the intersection of a 3-dimensional body with a plane. ... Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. ... Direct current (DC or continuous current) is the continuous flow of electricity through a conductor such as a wire from high to low potential. ... The skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current to distribute itself within a conductor so that the current density near the surface of the conductor is greater than that at its core. ...

AWG	Diameter		Area		Copper resistance	Copper resistance[3]	Copper wire current rating with 60 °C insulation	Approximate stranded metric equivalents
	(in)	(mm)	(kcmil)	(mm²)	(Ω/1 km)	(Ω/1000 ft)	(A)
000000(6/0)	0.5800	14.73	336.5	170
00000(5/0)	0.5165	13.12	266.8	135
0000(4/0)	0.4600	11.68	211.6	107
000(3/0)	0.4096	10.40	167.8	85
00(2/0)	0.3648	9.266	133.1	67.4
0(1/0)	0.3249	8.251	105.5	53.5	~0.3281	~0.1
1	0.2893	7.348	83.69	42.4			110
2	0.2576	6.544	66.37	33.6			95
3	0.2294	5.827	52.63	26.7			85	196/0.4
4	0.2043	5.189	41.74	21.2			70
5	0.1819	4.621	33.10	16.8				126/0.4
6	0.1620	4.115	26.25	13.3			55
7	0.1443	3.665		10.5				80/0.4
8	0.1285	3.264		8.37			40
9	0.1144	2.906		6.63				>84/0.3
10	0.1019	2.588		5.26	3.2772	0.9989	30	<84/0.3
11	0.0907	2.305		4.17	4.1339	1.260		56/0.3
12	0.0808	2.053		3.31	5.210	1.588	20
13	0.0720	1.828		2.62	6.572	2.003		50/0.25
14	0.0641	1.628		2.08	8.284	2.525	15
15	0.0571	1.450		1.65	10.45	3.184		>30/0.25
16	0.0508	1.291		1.31	13.18	4.016	10	<30/0.25
17	0.0453	1.150		1.04	16.614	5.064		32/0.2
18	0.0403	1.024		0.823	20.948	6.385		>24/0.2
19	0.0359	0.9116		0.653	26.414	8.051		<24/0.2
20	0.0320	0.8118		0.518	33.301	10.15		16/0.2
21	0.0285	0.7229		0.410	41.995	12.80
22	0.0253	0.6438		0.326	52.953	16.14		7/0.25
23	0.0226	0.5733		0.258	66.798	20.36
24	0.0201	0.5106		0.205	84.219	25.67		1/0.5, 7/0.2, 30/0.1
25	0.0179	0.4547		0.162	106.201	32.37
26	0.0159	0.4049		0.129	133.891	40.81		7/0.15
27	0.0142	0.3606		0.102	168.865	51.47
28	0.0126	0.3211		0.081	212.927	64.90
29	0.0113	0.2859		0.0642	268.471	81.83
30	0.0100	0.2546		0.0509	338.583	103.2		1/0.25, 7/0.1
31	0.0089	0.2268		0.0404	426.837	130.1
32	0.0080	0.2019		0.0320	538.386	164.1		1/0.2, 7/0.08
33	0.0071	0.1798		0.0254	678.806	206.9
34	0.0063	0.1601		0.0201	855.971	260.9
35	0.0056	0.1426		0.0160	1085.958	331.0
36	0.0050	0.1270		0.0127	1360.892	414.8
37	0.0045	0.1131		0.0100	1680.118	512.1
38	0.0040	0.1007		0.00797	2127.953	648.6
39	0.0035	0.08969		0.00632	2781.496	847.8
40	0.0031	0.07987		0.00501	3543.307	1080.0

The "Approximate stranded metric equivalents" column lists commonly available cables in the format "number of strands / diameter of individual strand (mm)" which is the common nomenclature describing cable construction within an overall cross-sectional area. Where a common cable is midway between two AWG sizes, it is listed and being > one AWG and < another AWG. Cables sold in Europe are normally labeled according to the combined cross section of all strands in mm², which can be compared directly with the Area column. General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ... Electrical resistance is a measure of the degree to which an electrical component opposes the passage of current. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ... Electrical resistance is a measure of the degree to which an electrical component opposes the passage of current. ... The ohm (symbol: Ω) is the SI unit of electric resistance. ... The ohm (symbol: Ω) is the SI unit of electric resistance. ...

In the North American electrical industry, conductors larger than 4/0 AWG are generally identified by the area in thousands of circular mils (kcmil), where 1 kcmil = 0.5067 mm². A circular mil is the area of a wire one mil in diameter. One million circular mils is the area of a rod with 1000 mil = 1 in diameter. An older abbreviation for one thousand circular mils is mcm. The term 'mil' is capable of being misinterpreted because the term 'mil' is used sometimes as a colloquial term for millimetre, millilitre etc. A circular mil is a unit of area, equal to the area of a circle with a diameter of one mil. ... A thou, also known as a mil, is a unit of length equal to one thousandth of an international inch. ...

Outside North America, wire sizes for electrical purposes are usually given as the cross sectional area in square millimetres. International standard manufacturing sizes for conductors in electrical cables are defined in IEC 60228. Standards are produced by many organizations, some for internal usage only, others for use by a groups of people, groups of companies, or a subsection of an industry. ... IEC 60228 is the International Electrotechnical Commissions international standard on conductors of insulated cables. ...

1. ↑  Bare, solid copper wire at 68 °F — Resistance data is from Belden Master Catalog, 1995.

General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ... Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), who proposed it in 1724. ... Belden may refer to: Belden, California Belden, Nebraska Belden Electronics Division, a design and manufacturer enterprise of wire and cable products This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Reference

• Donald G. Fink and H. Wayne Beaty, Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers, Eleventh Edition,McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978, ISBN 0-07-020974-X, page 4-18 and table 4-11.

See also

• IEC 60228 for international standard wire sizes
• Imperial Wire Gauge & British Standard Gauge
• Wikimedia chart comparing all known wire gauges to each other.

IEC 60228 is the International Electrotechnical Commissions international standard on conductors of insulated cables. ... British Standard, or Imperial wire gauge, fixed by order of council August 23, 1883. ...

External links

• AWG to Metric Conversion Chart
• How to Gauge Traces
• Conversion and calculation of cable diameter to AWG and vice versa