A closely related standard (ANSI/ASME Y14.1) is described at http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/25_140.html.
Note that it gives the size in millimeters first. As it uses tenths of a millimeter, it's exactly the same as the inch specification. Obviously, given how long the sizes have been around, their original specification was in inches. The standard diskette size has not simply been defined in millimeters, it was specified at the design stage in millimeters. As we've discussed here, it should be called the "90 mm diskette." Also, as I've stated here, I've renamed it on my laptop (something you can do with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but not with older versions of Windows) to reflect that. I think several other participants in these discussions have done the same. Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Behalf Of Terry Simpson >Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 14:42 >To: U.S. Metric Association >Subject: [USMA:31654] RE: Paper > > >John wrote: >>Would it be legal on the package of paper if it said 216.x280 mm? >>Are 8.5x11 sheets of paper exactly 8.5x11 inches? > >US letter paper is defined by ANSI X3.151-1987. I do not know if the >standard uses inches or mm. It would be interesting to find out. >It could be >similar to the 3.5 inch floppy that is defined as 90 mm in the standard. > >The ISO tolerance for A4 paper is +/- 2 mm. A german national standard >requires a tolerance of +/- 1.5 mm. So converting inches to integer >millimetres seems sensible. But laws are not always sensible. > >Information source: >http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html >
