A huge variety of electric wires with different manufacturing materials, wire gauges and electric qualities are available in the market. American electric wires are considered standard wires with perfect qualities and standard gauges.
This page brings a complete analysis of wires with different manufacturing materials including Nickle, Silver, Aluminum, Nichrome, Copper, Silver electric steel and many others. There is also a complete analysis of wire qualities including wire gauge, Diameter, Resistance, cross-section area, and other electric properties.
#2 American Wiring Gauge (AWG) properties: diameter, area, resistance.
The diameter of #2 AWG wire in inches:
d2(inch) = 0.005 inch × 92 (36-2)/39 = 0.2576 inch
d2(mm) = 0.127 mm × 92 (36-2)/39 = 6.5437 mm
The area of #2 AWG wire in kilo-circular mils:
An (kcmil) = 1000×dn2 = 1000×(0.2576 in)2 = 66.3713 kcmil
The area of #2 AWG wire in square inches:
A2(inch2) = (π/4)×dn2 = (π/4)×(0.2576 in)2 = 0.0521 inch2
A2(mm2) = (π/4)×dn2 = (π/4)×(6.5437 mm)2 = 33.6308 mm2
| Wire material |
Resistivity @20ºC (Ω×m) |
Resistance per kilofeet @20ºC (Ω/kft) |
Resistance per kilometer @20ºC (Ω/km) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper | 1.72×10-8 | 0.1559 | 0.5114 |
| Aluminum | 2.82×10-8 | 0.2556 | 0.8385 |
| Carbon steel | 1.43×10-7 | 1.2960 | 4.2521 |
| Electrical steel | 4.60×10-7 | 4.1690 | 13.6779 |
| Gold | 2.44×10-8 | 0.2211 | 0.7255 |
| Nichrome | 1.1×10-6 | 9.9694 | 32.7081 |
| Nickel | 6.99×10-8 | 0.6335 | 2.0784 |
| Silver | 1.59×10-8 | 0.1441 | 0.4728 |
* Results may change with real wires: different resistivity of material and number of strands in wire
The n gauge wire resistance R in ohms per kilofeet (Ω/kft) is equal to 0.3048×1000000000 times the wire's resistivity ρ in ohm-meters (Ω·m) divided by 25.42 times the cross sectional area An in square inches (in2):
Rn (Ω/kft) = 0.3048 × 109 × ρ(Ω·m) / (25.42 × An (in2))
The n gauge wire resistance R in ohms per kilometer (Ω/km) is equal to 1000000000 times the wire's resistivity ρ in ohm-meters (Ω·m) divided by the cross sectional area An in square millimeters (mm2):
Rn (Ω/km) = 109 × ρ(Ω·m) / An (mm2)
Gauge -Thickness Dimension inches thick Dimension millimeters thick
2 .258 inch or slightly over 1/4 inch thick 6.54 mm
4 .204 inch 5.189 mm
6 .162 inch 4.1mm
8 .128 a little over 1/8 inch 3.26 mm