» So I can remember A4
The metric system never really caught on in North America- though I can remember my elementary school teachers in the 70′s doing their best to confuse the heck out of us with it. (A meter stick? Whaaa?) This means that anytime someone writes to me with a request that a particular Rhodia product expanded to include A4 or A5, I have to scurry to Wikipedia for a refresher on what the similar US sizes might be. If you yourself are not sure, I am attaching these handy charts (courtesy of Wikipedia) that I should probably print out and slip into my Exaclair catalog for future reference. (For the record, A4 is roughly 8 1/4″ x 11 3/4″ while US letter paper is 8 1/2″ x 11″. )
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The other cool thing is that the relationship between the short and long edges is 1:1.414 (AKA 1 to the square root of 2). Take A0: 841mm times the square root of two is…1189.35.
Since this is consistent among sizes, the steps to reduce (or magnify) are consistent. Going from A0 to A1 (one step) is a 71% reduction; to A2 (two steps) is 50%. A4 to A5 (one step) is also a 71% reduction; to A6 (two steps) is 50%.
A good article on all of this can be found at:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html
Even though living in the US means I can’t take advantage of these properties, I think it is the geekiest system for paper, and, as such, why I use it.
Wow! This is a great reference. I have never been able to remember the different European paper sizes. There are so many! Thank you and thanks Wikipedia!
Hey Stephanie – I don’t think it’s fair to say that metric never caught on in North America. You do realize that most of North America is Canada, right? But you are right that we prefer Letter paper to A4. Just don’t try driving your car up here at 110 MPH when you see the posted speed limit is 110!
Weights and measures may have stayed in the dark ages in the US but you embraced decimal coinage from the start.
Strange how things go.
For the record, the No. 18 pads are in A4
http://www.rhodiapads.com/collections_orange_18.shtml
and the 16 are A5
http://www.rhodiapads.com/collections_orange_16.shtml
Trying so hard not to be a whinging European, but it’s dashed frustrating receiving documents from North America, as they have to be resized to print on A sized paper: but I guess it cuts both ways. I was led to believe that A series paper dimensions were based upon the Golden Mean, but this may be an urban myth.
I’ve always wondered why the legal size paper is larger and why are legal pads traditionally yellow? Perhaps US contributors can explain the historical reasons for this being so. It’s one of those things if you’re not from the US you just accept that this is so, but it’d be interesting to know why.
{{Embarrassed}} Sorry Rap, I honestly let the missing brain cells write that post. :o) I hadn’t even thought to check which system of measurement Canada used.
@TubbyMike: On Yellow Legal Pads:
http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/May-June-2005/scene_snider_mayjun05.msp
Mr. Barilleaux,
Thanks for the link. Interesting to fill in the gaps for a clueless European, even though it seems some of the reasons for its existence and colour have been lost in the mists of American history.
I like the idea that yellow paper reduces glare, but I suspect the “anti-ageing” properties are closer to the truth.
It seems that the yellow legal pad is as much a part of American culture as, say, coffee and the Hemi engine.
Thanks again for the link. You are a gentleman and a scholar sir.
It always confuses me that Americans don’t use the metric system!
@TubbyMike: I think you mean the Golden RATIO. This is a different number to sqrt(2). The confusion is completely understandable however, as the golden ratio is related to the golden rectangle – which possesses a similar property to A* pages w.r.t. rescaling. (Where folding an A* page in half gives you two smaller A* pages, chopping a square off of the end of a golden rectangle leaves another golden rectangle.) hth
@Tim
Yep, that’s exactly what I meant. Very succinct. You can tell that I wasn’t a Maths graduate.
;)
Thanks for your help.
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