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From: keie@cs.vu.nl (Keizer E G)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: a4.sty & article.sty
Message-ID: <10167@star.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 7 Jun 91 07:38:35 GMT
References: <1991Jun5.110328.10194@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> <1390003@hparc0.HP.COM>
Sender: news@cs.vu.nl
Lines: 30

dak@hparc0.HP.COM (Dave Kruger) writes:

>Strewth!  Talk about a "Sydney or the Bush" attitude!  A4 is *not* a German
>size.  It is an international metric paper size recommended by the
>International Standards Organisation.  ## flame deleted ##

>Seriously though, A4 paper is derived from A0 paper.  There are several A paper
>sizes, all derived from the basic A0 size,  as follows:

>	A0 - 1189 mm x 841 mm
>	A1 - is half A0
>	A2 - is half A1, and so on down to A7 size.

That is almost correct. For those who wonder what 1189x841 has to
do with metric sizes I have the following information:

	A0 describes the dimensions of a rectangle with a size of
	1 square meter and with two sides the square root of 2 times
	as long as the other two sides.

	This has the nice property that if you divide such a rectangle
	in two rectangles of the same size and if you make that division
	by dividing the longest side into two, that length of the resulting
	sides of the smaller rectangles have the same length with respect
	to each other. (one against the square root of two) etc. etc. etc.
--
Ed Keizer					tel: +31 20 548 5777
Faculteit Wiskunde & Informatika		fax: +31 20 642 7705
Vrije Universiteit				e-mail: keie@cs.vu.nl
De Boelelaan 1081A, 1081 HV  Amsterdam, The Netherlands