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The Logic Behind Metric Paper Sizes

Posted by michael on from the forty-rods-to-the-hogshead dept.

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."

6 of 1,461 comments (clear)

  1. The Logic Behind Metric Paper Sizes by errxn · · Score: 1, Troll

    It isn't the crappy English measurement system. That's all the "logic" I need.

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    In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
  2. Mirror by mirror_dude · · Score: 1, Troll

    I'm not sure how this server is going to handle it , so I put a mirror of the article up here

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  3. Metric is good by tnmc · · Score: 1, Troll

    I'm a Canadian and I work in England and the pain of dealing with this is that I've got to maintain two different versions of my CV, formatted slightly differently for Letter and A4, paper being one of very few metric bits the UK adheres to.

    And while I admit I was annoyed about A4 when I first moved here, I like it much better now.

    In fact I like all the metric system stuff I've been converted to down the years since the government started introducing it in Canada when I was a kid.

  4. US Flag proportions by t1deman · · Score: 0, Troll

    I wonder what proportions the US flag has? Why don't you guys take your metric system, fly up to the moon and measure it.

    Fscking metric system. When's the last time I was sitting around wishing I could make a legal sheet of paper by taping together 2 letter sheets?

  5. Re:Yes... it's your damn fault! by Uma+Thurman · · Score: 0, Troll

    Ah fuck, what have I gotten myself into? For some reason, every luddite in the country has taken it upon themselves to teach me how to do fractional arithmetic!

    OK, I hate programming in APL. What's next? An APL tutorial by some grumpy old programmers?

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    This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
  6. did you know .... by fullofangst · · Score: 0, Troll

    "did you know that in the Metric paper system ..."

    What is this ? Did Slashdot run out of geeky unix articles to waffle about ?

    By the way, welcome to 2004.