OT(ish) - cross sectional area of round wire.

David WE Roberts · 2011-06-17T17:41:03+00:00

I am sizing up some wire to connect two 12V leisure batteries together, also teminals, fuse holder etc.I noted that the wire thicknesses were quoted in mm^2 so I went looking for an explanation on how to relate wire thickness (diameter) to mm^2.Found this: said, amongst other things"Here is another example. Assume that a conductor is 3/8 inch thick and 4 inches wide. The 3/8 inch can be expressed in decimal form as 0.375 inch. Since 1 mil equals 0.001 inch, the thickness of the conductor will be 0.001 ´ 0.375, or 375 mils. Since the width is 4 inches and there are 1,000 mils per inch, the width will be 4 ´ 1,000, or 4,000 mils. "Now is the mil completely different from the mm?Or is something horribly wrong here?Looks like the terminology here is mil = a thousandth of an inch.Given that the UK spoken shorthand for a millimetre is a mil (as in 10 mil spanner) there is enormous scope for confusion.You say tomayto and I say tomarto?Now trying to estimate the thickness of the conductor if the conductor plus sheathing is about 6mm.CheersDave R