How is wire measured?

In the United States, wires are measured by diameter using a standard called AWG, or American Wire Gauge. Discover how the AWG system works -- and where it came from -- in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff Works dot com
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(00:25):
today's question, can you explain the diameter measurements used in wire?
The measurement system used for wire is interesting. A w
G stands for American wire gauge and is the standard
in the United States for wire diameters and how she
typically find ten, twelve, and fourteen gauge wire and electronics

(00:46):
projects typically used twenty gauge wire. Wire gauges run from
O O O gauge, which is about a half an
inch in diameter, down to forty gauge, which is about
point o O one in inches or a thousand of
an inch in diameter. The higher the AWG number, the
thinner the wire. Where did this odds system come from?

(01:09):
It has to do with the way wire was once made.
Wire is drawn through dies to make it thinner. The
more dies, the thinner the wire. The gauge number stems
from how many holes the wire is drawn through when
it's manufactured. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for
this podcast? If so, please send me an email at

(01:30):
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