Question: is 20 gauge steel thick?
Answer: The 1″ thickness of the steel was measured in diminishing fractions such as 1/14″ thick, 1/16″ thick, 1/20″ thick, and so on. The bottom number of the fraction became an easy identifier and eventually was adopted as the “gauge number.” Thus, 1/16″ became 16 gauge and 1/20″ became 20 gauge.