Math question re: total length of wire

I have a sheet of chainmail made from 2,251 links of 18gg steel wire, and each link has an internal diameter of 5/32".

Assuming the the links are all of uniform size and that each is a perfect torus (i.e., no notch-marks from the clippers), how many total inches of wire are in the sheet?

I asked for total inches, moran!




Actually, that's quite close to what I came up with.

Thanks!

18 GG = 0.0403 in

OD of link = 5/32 + 0.0403 + 0.0403 = 0.23685

Circumference of each link = 0.74408622

2,251 links * 0.74408622 in/link = 1674.93808 in

metal wrapped in a tight circle compresses the inside of the curve rather than stretching the outside. Metal shop thirty years ago talking.

It's true.

Tone down the invective, you hot-heads.

I can't beat experimental evidence.

In our lab one of our favorite fools errands for a new technician was to send him off in search of a wire stretcher. What, they didn't teach you that in school? :)

Years ago I knew a guy who'd been in the Navy, and he told me how the newbies were often sent on errands to find bulkhead remover.

another one was left handed screw driver.

we used to send the new hires on fool errands in search of the brass magnet. Because the magnetic properties of brass are without compare.

One of their pipes was a little short.

They said the ironworkers have it.Its hanging from the skyhook.You will need the metric crescent wrench to get it down.

in my Grampa's day he had one just dedicated to that and he always called it a wire stretcher. ???

For a fence to last the wire must be stretched.

If you had a bunch of wire rings, and you then wanted to get a measurement if they were stretched out in a straight line, then you have to change the wire rings.

When you straighten them the outer side will compress, the inner side will expand. So the act of measuring them in the form of comparison to a single dimensional length measurement changes what is measured.

The easiest way to get an accurate measurement would be to do a volume comparison, throw them in a bucket of water, measure the change in volume, then knowing the thickness of the wire, you could compute its length, without needing to distort the problem to get a measurement.

How many inches of wire should I tell the proprietor to sell me?

And 18 is a little thin for chainmail, unless you're just doing something decorative. I usually use 14 for armor and 16 for light armor.

I mean, it doesn't provide much impact protection against a big rattan stick, so it winds up adding a lot of superfluous weight.

But for nice chain outfits, I've worked in 14, 16, 17, and 18.

Here's the byrnie I made from 18gg galvanized:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12837212@N02/2953414090/


The current project is much smaller, but it would be useful for me to be able to provide some sense of the total length of the wire in it.

:P

I was using some colored 18 gauge for a set of elven themed armor I was working on a while back. I was going to make a set of seasonal bracers, four color schemes. And for the leather parts I was going to basically decoupage dried leaves onto the surface of the leather and lacquer over them. I was going to make 12 bracers overall, one set with no metal to be for magic users, one with little chainmail and some metal studs and a thick piece of leather on the inside of the arm for a ranger, and one with mostly chainmail over the leather for a fighter. But time and money reared its ugly head and I had to choose whether to do that project or work on my mandalorian armor.

:)

Was that 18gg aluminum, or some other metal? I've only done a little work in aluminum and a bit more in brass. I have a hard time finding good sources, especially since the quality of the metal seems to vary so greatly from one supplier to the next.

For small sections, I find that K&S Metals produces brass rod of quite good quality, but it's not entirely cost-effective.

but we had colored copper wire at my place of work, and I get an employee discount. And since I wasn't planning on using these bracers for larping, I figured I'd go cheap rather than durable.

Needless to say, it would have been entirely decorative. Its VERY soft. :P

I've only done about 500 links in copper, and that was about 15 years ago.

What do you use them for, if not for larping? RenFaires? SCA?

:)

did you want the answer, or folks to do a lot of useless math?

You're just a helpful ray of sunshine, aren't you?

Again, you don't present the question if it's a "I need to know" or "hey kids, math problem time".

A good postal scale will weigh to .1 ounces with reasonable accuracy, free to use at any post office. If you're using this to figure out how much wire to buy, you'd need to round up a little anyway, based on the lengths of wire on the spool, and as a margin for error in cutting/assembly. Or will they sell you a 23.4 foot reel?

And you're the only one who seems to be put out by the request.

Sorry to inconvenience you.


The reason for the question, as I mentioned, is so that I can answer when someone asks me how many feet of wire are in the darned thing. Obviously I can round up, and for those purposes it doesn't really matter whether I use the internal, the external, or the central length of the wire.

However, it seemed that the question would generate some fun, light-hearted conversation, and with perhaps one exception I see that everyone else agreed with me.

So, let's try this chain mail:

Send this email to ten of your best friends, and tell them to send it to ten of their best friends, etc.

And everyone who gets the letter should send a dollar to me.

In no time at all, I'll have enough for plate armor.

Send the dollar to
JustABozoOnThisBus
c/o skinner and grovelbot
DemocraticUnderground.com
U.S.A.

end of chain mail

from my calculus text book



I come up with negative 13 inches.

You're welcome.