What is AWG?

Since 1857, the American wire gauge (AWG), also known as the Brown & Sharpe wire gauge, has been predominantly used in the United States to determine the current-carrying capacity for round, solid, nonferrous, electrically conducting wire by using the cross-sectional area as a important determining factor.  This AWG table is for single, solid, round conductors. Stranded wire's cross-sectional area of the total conductors is used to determine the AWG, which in turn determines the electrical resistance and current-carrying capacity. Stranded wire, when compared to solid wire, will always have a larger overall diameter due to small gaps between strands.  Category 5, Category 6 network cable and many other cables will commonly have the specification printed on the jacket. Cat5e network cable in commonly 24 AWG while Serial ATA cables are normally 26 AWG.  This table is based on plastic insulation and does not take skin effect into account. The diameter information, allowable current (ampacity) and resistance of various gauges wires applies to solid wires while assuming DC/AC frequencies at 60 Hz or less. Note: 4/0 is for 0000.3/0 is for 000.2/0 is for 00.1/0 is for 0. AWG Diameter sectional area (mm2) Copper Resistant (W/km) AWG Diameter sectional area (mm2) Copper Resistant (W/km) mm inch mm inch 4/0 11.68 0.46 107.22 0.17 22 0.643 0.0253 0.3247 54.3 3/0 10.40 0.4096 85.01 0.21 23 0.574 0.0226 0.2588 48.5 2/0 9.27 0.3648 67.43 0.26 24 0.511 0.0201 0.2047 89.4 1/0 8.25 0.3249 53.49 0.33 25 0.44 0.0179 0.1624 79.6 1 7.35 0.2893 42.41 0.42 26 0.404 0.0159 0.1281 143 2 6.54 0.2576 33.62 0.53 27 0.361 0.0142 0.1021 128 3 5.83 0.2294 26.67 0.66 28 0.32 0.0126 0.0804 227 4 5.19 0.2043 21.15 0.84 29 0.287 0.0113 0.0647 289 5 4.62 0.1819 16.77 1.06 30 0.254 0.0100 0.0507 361 6 4.11 0.1620 13.30 1.33 31 0.226 0.0089 0.0401 321 7 3.67 0.1443 10.55 1.68 32 0.203 0.0080 0.0316 583 8 3.26 0.1285 8.37 2.11 33 0.18 0.0071 0.0255 944 9 2.91 0.1144 6.63 2.67 34 0.16 0.0063 0.0201 956 10 2.59 0.1019 5.26 3.36 35 0.142 0.0056 0.0169 1,200 11 2.30 0.0907 4.17 4.24 36 0.127 0.0050 0.0127 1,530 12 2.05 0.0808 3.332 5.31 37 0.114 0.0045 0.0098 1,377 13 1.82 0.0720 2.627 6.69 38 0.102 0.0040 0.0081 2,400 14 1.63 0.0641 2.075 8.45 39 0.089 0.0035 0.0062 2,100 15 1.45 0.0571 1.646 10.6 40 0.079 0.0031 0.0049 4,080 16 1.29 0.0508 1.318 13.5 41 0.071 0.0028 0.0040 3,685 17 1.15 0.0453 1.026 16.3 42 0.064 0.0025 0.0032 6,300 18 1.02 0.0403 0.8107 21.4 43 0.056 0.0022 0.0025 5,544 19 0.912 0.0359 0.5667 26.9 44 0.051 0.0020 0.0020 10,200 20 0.813 0.0320 0.5189 33.9 45 0.046 0.0018 0.0016 9,180 21 0.724 0.0285 0.4116 42.7 46 0.041 0.0016 0.0013 16,300

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