page_title: Micrometer
section_title: Metric system
hierarchical_section_title: Micrometer / Reading / Metric system
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Mikrometer English: MicrometerEspañol: micrómetro, indicando 5,78 mm Italiano: Micrometro centesimale Русский: Микрометр
context_page_description: A micrometer, sometimes known as a micrometer screw gauge, is a device incorporating a calibrated screw widely used for accurate measurement of components in mechanical engineering and machining as well as most mechanical trades, along with other metrological instruments such as dial, vernier, and digital calipers. Micrometers are usually, but not always, in the form of calipers. The spindle is a very accurately machined screw and the object to be measured is placed between the spindle and the anvil. The spindle is moved by turning the ratchet knob or thimble until the object to be measured is lightly touched by both the spindle and the anvil.
  Micrometers are also used in telescopes or microscopes to measure the apparent diameter of celestial bodies or microscopic objects. The micrometer used with a telescope was invented about 1638 by William Gascoigne, an English astronomer.
context_section_description: The spindle of an ordinary metric micrometer has 2 threads per millimetre, and thus one complete revolution moves the spindle through a distance of 0.5 millimeter. The longitudinal line on the sleeve is graduated with 1 millimetre divisions and 0.5 millimetre subdivisions. The thimble has 50 graduations, each being 0.01 millimetre (one-hundredth of a millimetre). Thus, the reading is given by the number of millimetre divisions visible on the scale of the sleeve plus the particular division on the thimble which coincides with the axial line on the sleeve.
  Suppose that the thimble were screwed out so that graduation 5, and one additional 0.5 subdivision were visible on the sleeve (as shown in the image), and that graduation 28 on the thimble coincided with the axial line on the sleeve. The reading then would be 5.00 + 0.5 + 0.28 = 5.78 mm.
caption: Micrometer thimble with a reading of 5.78 ± 0.005 mm.
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