The Logic Behind Metric Paper Sizes

Oily Pakora writes "Those of us in the United States are so used to our Letter and Legal paper sizes. We've seen the A4 paper size option in our printer trays and in printer preference menus. Metric sizes used almost everywhere in the world, save for the US and Canada. Here is an interesting article that discusses all of the aspects of metric paper. For those who enjoy a bit of math, did you know that in the Metric paper system, the height-to-width ratio of all pages is the square root of 2? This means that you can place two sheets of A4 side-by-side and they will equal an A3 sheet exactly, and two sheets of A3 will equal an A2."

Comments

Paper and Condoms

[Basehart]

When I used to live in the UK the metric paper system used to make so much sense, yet three thousand miles later, in possibly the most technologically advanced nation in the world, I'm working with Victorian era weights and measures.

Unfortunately that's not the only Victorian era throwback that Americans are living with

I saw some ads this morning that recently aired in the UK, ads for condoms, that are smart and funny, yet would not be aired on US television because of all the sick and twisted censorship this land of the free is having to deal with right now.

At least God gave us the internet, and the christian right can't take away away, right!?

Trojan Games

You Europeans and your perfect ratios...

[default luser]

Funny that, I always thought the A6 was TWICE the car the A4 was, and the A8 was THREE TIMES the car the A4 was.

At least, that's the impression you got from the sticker price. YOWZA!

But once you get a good look at them, you realize that 1.46 * A4 = A6, and 2.68 * A4 = A8. You crazy Europeans always have such inconsistent conversion factors!