What does AWG stand for?
“American Wire Gauge” is the standard used to represent successive diameters of wire. The system is based on the establishment of two arbitrary sizes: 0000 (4/0 or ‘4-aught’) defined as exactly .4600″ diameter and 36, defined as exactly .0050″ diameter. The ratio of these two sizes is 92 and the sizes between the two are based on the 39th root of 92, or approximately 1.123, so the nominal diameter of each gauge size increases approximately by this factor between AWG 36 and AWG 4/0 and decreases by this factor between AWG 36 and AWG 56, which is the smallest practical diameter for commercial magnet wire. Nominal wire diameters to AWG 44 are rounded to the fourth decimal place and aren’t necessarily rounded to the nearest digit. A chart of nominal AWG gauge sizes is on page 31 of the MWS technical data booklet which can be accessed on our website.
