Self correction of blogs
In this post, I pointed out how a report had confused millimeters with caliber. I then (from memory, TLTG) figured up a quick caliber conversion. I was wrong. Reader Andrew commented
As I have no doubt you are aware, the .38 special caliber shoots 0.357″ bullets, which equates to 9.0678mm (exactly – the inch has actually been defined as exactly 2.54cm. Interestingly the meter has been defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 seconds. The second has been defined as the time it takes for 9,162,631,770 vibration cycles in the radiation emmited (sic) by cessium (sic)-133). Near enough to just call it 9mm. Now, if the .38 special actually fired 0.380″ bullets, it would be 9.652mm.
I am nothing, if not self-correcting.
March 28th, 2005 at 11:50 am
For some reason, I’m thinking the .38 refers to the diameter of the bore plus the depth of the rifling, but maybe that’s just my imagination.
March 30th, 2005 at 12:05 am
I think for artillery caliber is equal to the barrel length in units of bore, but that might be archaic.