LEGO Woes
It seemed like a relatively easy bit of information to track down. I just wanted to know the dimensions of a LEGO block. A 2×2 block to be specific. It was pretty random, and not very important, but I was curious. Try to find it. It's fun.
I ended up asking a reference librarian for help. We eventually found the information that I was looking for, but only after I had given up twice. I even called the LEGO customer support hotline… which forwarded me to the LEGO "shop at home" number, which then forwarded me to "replacement parts", which got me to a real person, who then forwarded me to another real person. By "real person" I mean someone that seemed absolutely stumped by my question.. the size of a block.. I just wanted a number. She put me on hold. I waited. 5-6 minutes later I hung up.
So, after all that effort, here are the dimensions of a 2×2 lego brick. The height is 9.58mm, the length and width are both 16mm.
Exciting, I know. Next week: The Volume of a Water Buffalo.
unlikelymoose said,
It always bothered me how LEGO® abuses their monopoly on their product. Striking down counterfeit LEGO products and suing the bananas out of other companies that replicate their designs is fine and dandy. Protect your patents. Fine. But the price of LEGO® is outrageous. And I don't want to hear about how the rising cost of oil effects the production of LEGO®. Yes, that's certainly true, but beyond the oil factor LEGO® products are still too expensive.
June 2, 2009 @ 10:24 am
sparx said,
Also, what if the counterfeit LEGO blocks weighed less than the originals? Maybe they could have made NINE boulders! NINE! Madness!
June 2, 2009 @ 10:28 am
sparx said,
By "originals" I meant "real".
June 2, 2009 @ 10:28 am
me said,
the basic unit of measure for lego bricks is 0.8 mm
a 1×1 lego brick is 8mm x 8mm x 9.6 mm tall and the bump on top is 1.6mm tall.
however, there is a slight take-back of material from the sides to allow a nice easy fit. subtract 0.1mm from each side (total 0.2 mm in each dimension) e.g. a 2 x 4 brick
2x8mm -0.2mm = 16mm – 0.2mm or 15.8mm
4x8mm -0.2mm = 32mm – 0.2mm or 31.8mm
height is 9.6 (so it's divisible by 3) which is 3.2mm x 3.
and the bumps are 1.6 tall.
it all boils down to a 0.8mm base unit. and a 0.2mm gap between bricks.
😉 hope that helps… there are a lot os sites out there now that have this info an more. cheers!
February 10, 2010 @ 11:49 pm
MARIAN said,
TOO FUNNY YOU WOULD THINK THAT THIS MUCH WORK WOULD ONLY GO TO SOLVING GREATER PROBLEMS IN LIFE BUT THEY ALSO HAPPEN IN THE WORLD OF LEGOS…ANYWAYS… IM VERY CONFUSED TOO. WAY BACK WHEN I WAS LITTLE THERE WAS ONLY ONE TYPE OF LEGO WHICH IS WHAT THEY CALL THE STANDARD SIZE HOWEVER I DONT KNOW WHAT THE STANDARD SIZE IS BECAUSE ONCE THEY CAME UP WITH THE DUPLO AND THEN THE REALLY TINY ONES AND SOME OTHER I GOT LOST SO I NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHICH ARE CONSIDERED STANDARD AND WHAT THEY SIZE IS ON THOSE …IF ANYONE CAN HELP I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT THANKS …MARIAN
November 14, 2010 @ 8:57 am
Carol said,
Thank you! I've been trying to scale our University Library into Lego size, and I looked all over for the size of a standard brick.
December 8, 2010 @ 12:22 pm