[Guest]

What is the ratio of the length of one side of A4 paper to the other, and why?

No Measuring

Same for all A series

[Guest]

What is the ratio of the length of one side of A4 paper to the other, and why?

No Measuring

Same for all A series

It's an international standard with a ratio of 1:sqrt 2. (used to work in an office supply store) The why of it eludes me.

[bonanova]

when you fold it in half, it has the same aspect ratio.

But why would that be useful or important?

[andromeda]

Maybe it has to do with envelopes?? I'm just rambling...

[Guest]

when you fold it in half, it has the same aspect ratio.

But why would that be useful or important?

That is right on bonanova.

scalalability. the aspect ratio of √2 is maintained each time you fold the paper in half.

[Guest]

That is right on bonanova.

scalalability. the aspect ratio of √2 is maintained each time you fold the paper in half.

Eggsellent

Still not sure why its so important

But perhaps if you ran a factory producing various sizes of paper it would be nice to be able to cut a large sheet in half

to make 2 smaller sheets and so on with no wastage

is there any other advantages

or can this system be applied any where else

I dont know by the way, just discussion

Odex

[Guest]

That is right on bonanova.

scalalability. the aspect ratio of √2 is maintained each time you fold the paper in half.

Which you can only do 6 times to any A4 piece of paper (7 with a vice)

[HoustonHokie]

I know that's a pretty useful advantage for ANSI size papers. You can fold an ANSI D (22"x34") in half twice to get an ANSI B (11"x17"), and the B folded in half is an A (8.5"x11"). Very useful for reports in the architecture/engineering business where the text is on A size, but large tables may be B size, small drawings could be C size (17" x 22"), and "full size" drawings are often D size. I presume the same philosophy is employed for the A series of papers, which is a metric equivalent of the ANSI series.