A circular mil is a unit of area, equal to the area of a circle with a diameter of one mil (one thousandth of an inch). It is a convenient unit for referring to the area of a wire with a circular eross section, because the area in circular mils area can be calculated without reference to pi (7). 1 ckeuler ‘a The area in circular mils, A. of a citcle with a diameter of d mils, is given by the formula: <—1 mi As&é deter Electricians in Canada and the United States are familiar with the circular mil because the National Electrical Code (NEC) uses the circular mil to define wire sizes larger than 0000 AWG. In many ‘NEC publications and uses, large wires may be expressed in thousands of eiteular mils, whieh is abbreviated in two different ways. MOM] oy Kemi.) For example, one commun wie size used it the NEC has a cross-section of 250,000 citcular mils, written as 250 kemil or 250 MCML, whieh is the first size larger than 0000 AWG used within the NEC. Equivalence to other units of area Although square mils are rarely used, itis convenient to convert between square inches and cireular mils. As a classic example taken from the NEC, a 0000 AWG solid wire is defined to have a diameter of exactly 0.46 inch, Formula 1: Cireular Mil AG inch = 460 mil 211,600 circular mils Formula 2: Square Mil d= 0,46 inch — 160 ui F d 23U mil 2, A=nar* 2 A=7 x 230 = 52,9007 & 166,190.25 square milsFormula 4: Solving for Circular Mil A=A 211, 600 circular mils= 52, IO0m square mils . ,_ 92,9000 — . 1 circular mil = ———— square mils 211,600 a 1 circular mil = 4 square mils Formula 5: Solving for Circular Mil 1 square mil = — circular mils TAWG circular mil formula The formula to calculate the circular mil for any given AWG (American Wire Gauge) size is as follows. 4, represents the circular mil area for the AWG size a. 4n = (5 x 92559")? = For example, a number 12 gauge wire would use n= 12; and the calculated result would be 6529.946789 cirewlar mils Sizes with multiple zeros are successively larger than the number 0 gauge size and can be denoted using "number of zeros/0"; for example 40 for the number 0000 gauze. For an m/0 AWG wite size, use n=~(m-1) = I-m in the above formula, = For example, the number 0000 gauge or 4/0 gauge, would use m =—3: and the calculated result would be 211,600 eireular mils 1 Were it possible to use n = -4 in this equation (assuming there was a size larger than 4/0 AWG), the calculated result would be about 255 Kemil, which is similar to the 250 kemil wire size actually in use