Simple Wire Gauge (AWG) Calculators

Bidirectional Single-Gauge AWG Calculator

Number of wires:
Wire gauge:

Effective gauge:

Uses:

Finding the effective gauge of several small wires of some gauge. For example, to see the effective gauge of a cable made from 27 24-gauge wires, select 24 gauge from the drop list, then type 27 into the number of wires field (and press the Tab key); the cable is effectively 10 gauge.
Finding the number of small wires of some gauge required for a desired effective gauge. For example, if you want to create a 15-gauge wire from 24-gauge wires, first select 24 gauge from the Wire Gauge list, then select 15 gauge from the Effective Gauge list; the required number of wires is 8.

Multi-Gauge AWG Calculator

Number of Wires	Wire Gauge





Effective gauge:

This form calculates the effective gauge of a combination of wires of various gauges. Just select the desired gauges, and enter the number of wires of each gauge. (Press the Tab key after entering a wire count.)

Rectangular Conductor AWG Calculator

This form calculates the gauge of a rectangular conductor with a specified cross section. Just enter the height and thickness in mm. (Press the Tab key after entering a dimension.)

Notes

These calculators don't do any fancy math. They just consult a table of cross-sectional areas for a set of common wire gauges. That means that any reported effective gauges are not exact. To find the effective gauge of a collection of wires, their total combined area is computed, and the closest matching entry in the table yields the result. If you look at the browser's status bar, you can see how the result was determined.
I used the cross-sectional areas from http://www.thepanelshop.com/Wire_table.htm. There is a similar table (and much other useful and interesting audio information) at http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/awg_e.html, but there is a minor mistake in this table. It shows the same diameter and area for 3 and 4 gauge wire.
This web page is self-contained, and you can copy it to your PC so you can use it without connecting to the Internet. Just use your browser's Save As... command to save the page to a local file. Then open your local copy in your browser to use the calculators.

Please send any questions, comments, or corrections to: Ron Stewart (rgs@hiwaay.net)

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