Because you have a 12 gauge as in a talking shotgun and then you also have a 12 gauge as in a 12 gauge needle which are two completely different sizes but gauge is a unit of measurement so how does that work
In: 173
Gauge isn’t a unit. It’s a description of a standard template or measuring device.
Gauges are called that because they were/are based on physical objects. In the early days of industrial automation, we used to standardize things by comparing them to a standard “gauge” to see if they fit.
An example of a gauge might be a metal block with a number of specifically sized holes in it. If a needle fits into the number 12 hole, but not the next smaller hole, then it is said to be a “12 gauge” needle.
The gauge for shotgun barrels would be a set of specifically sized rods.
It was easier in the early days of precise measurements to make a gauge very precisely once, and then always compare your products to that gauge. Now, we have sufficiently reliable measurement devices that we can measure every product if we wanted to, and making a physical gauge is no longer so necessary. There are probably factories that still use them for quality control though, just because it’s easier.
Note that this is why sometimes gauge numbering doesn’t make sense. Sometimes a smaller number means a larger size, and sometimes it means a smaller size. This is because it used to be a number written on the side of one of a set of physical objects, and what numbering system you used was basically arbitrary. Some gauge schemes have a reason, some do not.
Latest Answers