Depleted Uranium

[Vladimir]

I'm sorry, I stopped reading after the first sentence:

During March-June 1999 thousands of 30 millimeter caliber rounds stuffed with depleted-uranium were fired over Kosovo, mainly by the American A-10 aircraft.

Anyone with any degree of familiarity with munitions realizes that it's either millimeter or caliber, not both.

[Xiahou]

Anyone with any degree of familiarity with munitions realizes that it's either millimeter or caliber, not both.

If you want to dismiss an entire article over that I guess it's up to you....Although, caliber just means diameter.

In firearms, the caliber is the diameter of the inside of the barrel. In a rifled barrel the distance is measured between the lands.

If the measurement is in inches then the caliber (abbreviated to cal) is quoted as decimal of an inch, so a (smallbore) rifle with a diameter of 0.22 inch is a .22 cal ("twenty-two caliber").

Calibers of weapons can be referred to in metric, as in a "caliber of eighty-eight millimetres" (88 mm) or "a hundred five-millimetre caliber gun" (sometimes abbreviated as '105 mm gun').

Small arms range in bore size from approximately .17 cal. up to .50 cal. Arms used to hunt big game may be as large as .80 caliber. In the middle of the 19th century, muskets and muzzle-loading rifles were .58 cal or larger.

From Wikipedia.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Xiahou is right - the calibre of a weapon or round is measured in millimetres (or inches or whatever unit of measurement).

Sometimes people use the shorthand of 'nine millimetre pistol' or '155 calibre gun' but it is only shorthand.

calibre

/kalibr/ (US caliber)

• noun 1 quality of character or level of ability. 2 the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or the diameter of a bullet or shell.

[Vladimir]

Yes, but when you see what are usually two mutually exclusive terms strung together it doesn't inspire confidence. Quite often confusing the two can lead to injury or death, i.e. firing a 10mm bullet from a .40 cal pistol, etc.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Yes, but when you see what are usually two mutually exclusive terms strung together it doesn't inspire confidence. Quite often confusing the two can lead to injury or death, i.e. firing a 10mm bullet from a .40 cal pistol, etc.

I don't wish to labour the point as we veer off topic, but the terms are not mutually exclusive - each is actually meaningless without the other - a calibre requires the descriptor of a measurement.

In your example, you are still using just the shorthand, which is confusing you. The correct meaning of your sentence is:

..firing a 10 millimetre calibre bullet from a .40 inch calibre pistol..

If you say 'a 10mm bullet' are you saying the bullet is 10mm long, square or what? By convention, most people would accept that you are actually saying it is 10 mm in diameter (calibre).

For brevity's sake, people leave out either the measurement or calibre word, but by doing so they have to know what is being left out. The original article was simply being accurate, using the full descriptor.

Make sense?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I don't wish to labour the point as we veer off topic, but the terms are not mutually exclusive - each is actually meaningless without the other - a calibre requires the descriptor of a measurement.

In your example, you are still using just the shorthand, which is confusing you. The correct meaning of your sentence is:

..firing a 10 millimetre calibre bullet from a .40 inch calibre pistol..

If you say 'a 10mm bullet' are you saying the bullet is 10mm long, square or what? By convention, most people would accept that you are actually saying it is 10 mm in diameter (calibre).

For brevity's sake, people leave out either the measurement or calibre word, but by doing so they have to know what is being left out. The original article was simply being accurate, using the full descriptor.

Make sense?

X-man, Banquo, Vlad:

Be careful lads! If you keep this up, Kraxis will hijack the thread off into the Monastery and it won't stop until we've compared falconets, demi-culverins, 17-pounders, and the ballistic qualities of frozen European Swallows.

[Vladimir]

Edit: Gah! Got ahead of myself.