Showing posts with label calibre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calibre. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

caliber, caliper

Caliber or caliber means the measure of the inside of a tube, or something else that is a section of a cylinder--
You can't use a bullet of that caliber in this gun. It's the wrong size.
You'll need a length of 2" caliber pipe to finish this job.

Caliper or caliper ( almost rhymes with caliber, usually "calipers" ) means a tool to measure the thickness of something, or its inside or outside diameter, or the distance between its parts. A caliper has two sides hooked together like a pair of tongs or forceps--
You will need an inside caliper to measure the tube.
Caliper also means the thickness of paper, for example, or a tree--
If we use 1/8" caliper cardboard, the cartons will be less expensive.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"We can measure the caliper of the tree before we cut it down, and the caliber of the hollow log after it is cut."
"We will need a caliper to measure the caliber of the tube."

Note--you may encounter "caliber" used to mean the quality or measure of worth of a person. This seems trite, as well as nonsensical, as people can't be measured like tubes. It's an expression that annoys a lot of people.
Note # 2--"calibre" is a British or old-fashioned spelling of "caliber".