And somehow they think we have 12 fingers (inches) to count feet. Or 16 fingers (ounces) to count a pound. Hexadecimal has a reason, but this is so unnatural imperial units don't look human made.
And somehow they think we have 12 fingers (inches) to count feet. Or 16 fingers (ounces) to count a pound. Hexadecimal has a reason, but this is so unnatural imperial units don't look human made.
Well, that's what happens when a system develops haphazardly over the course of literal millennia, by custom and tradition, and is only formally codified at the end. Wait until you find out how shotgun gauges are determined!
Someone tell this artist that we Americans use more or less the same method, just with different units. I will admit that this is amusing, though.
zgryphon said:
Well, that's what happens when a system develops haphazardly over the course of literal millennia, by custom and tradition, and is only formally codified at the end. Wait until you find out how shotgun gauges are determined!
Okay, I'll bite: How are shotgun gauges determined? Could be an interesting read.
Okay, I'll bite: How are shotgun gauges determined? Could be an interesting read.
OK, hang onto your shorts:
The gauge of a firearm (nowadays almost exclusively used to refer to shotguns, but once applied to the likes of big-game rifles as well) represents the number of spheres of a diameter matching that of the bore that can be made from one (international avoirdupois) pound of lead.
Put another way, a lead sphere the diameter of a 12-gauge shotgun's bore weighs one-twelfth of a pound, while one the size of a 20-gauge bore weighs 1/20th, and so forth. That's why, as gauge number goes up, bore size gets smaller, and vice versa--similar to the Birmingham wire gauge, which is still used for both wires and hypodermic needles.
To bring this topic back around to Imperial units, the shells themselves are still noted as measured in inches of length after they have been fired. An unfired shell will be ~0.5 an inch shorter than listed on its packaging usually. The length of the fired shell is important for proper chambering in the breech - it has to unwrap completely, relatively smoothly. and offer no unnecessary pressure points for the balls to pass through into the barrel during weapon discharge.
