this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
30 points (89.5% liked)

No Stupid Questions

47684 readers
594 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Why are those long planks of wood called "2 by 4s"?

What units are we measuring here? 2 what by 4 what? Regardless of what units were using the proportions seem all off. 2 by 4 seems to imply that its a rectangle where the longer side is twice the side of the shorter side, but that doesn't describe this wood size at all. The long side is quite a big longer than twice the side of the shorter size. So I'm confused. Then there are other sizes of wood, like 2 by 6s, and I see similar issues there too.

Someone please explain what's going on here.

top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] schwim@piefed.zip 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

It's dimensional lumber so it's not actual size but before they started shorting them for profit, they were called 2x4s because they measured 2 inches x 4 inches. 4x4s, 6x6, 1x8, 2x12, etc. They all represented actual dimension of the lumber but you'll notice that today, they are basically 1/2 inch short in every dimension so a 2x4s actual measurement is 1 1/2" x 3 1/2".

If you tear apart the walls or look in the attic of a home built in the first half of the 20th century, you'll see lumber that actually measures their stated size.

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

It used to be you'd buy a 2x4 and then face it by taking 1/4" off all sides so it would be pretty. Now the lumber yards do that. Don't get me wrong the lumber industry is fucked and new lumber is inferior to old lumber, but be mad about timber forest management instead of the yard facing your lumber for you.

[–] litchralee@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 day ago

Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/3138/

Please let such a thing never exist!

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Had a 100+ year old house built for a steel mining company. Full cinder block siding on 2 stories and a basement. Joists in the basement were full size 2x10s nestled snugly between steel reinforced concrete joists (I forget the length on center). Had to replace some sub floor on the second floor under the toilet. More steel reinforced concrete joists. The nukes ever start flying I'm hightailing it back there and busting in... provided they didn't reinforce the door.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Inspector came to look at the house for some reason and was impressed to see a house built in the 50’s with a giant length of walnut(?) something like 8”x 12” by 20’

I have an old house on my property that has a similar piece of wood holding everything up.

They don’t/can’t build like that anymore.

[–] Amith@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The "2x4" name comes from the size of the rough cut timber when it is sawed out of the tree trunk. It starts as two inches by four inches. However, by the time the board makes it to the lumber yard, it has been milled down to 1.5 inches by 3.5 inches in order to remove bark, gashes, and other imperfections. Same thing with "2x6" boards or larger.

Now, this rule really only applies to building timbers. Other means of measurement apply if you were to go looking for, say, hardwood boards.

This is what I was taught as well. It's a very intentional "not quite 2x4", but saying that every time gets tiring haha

[–] cogitase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 day ago
[–] Chippys_mittens@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

2 inch tall by 4 inch wide. That includes what you lose with the saw used to cut it and what it loses in processing. So its not exactly 2 inches by 4 inches. Don't feel stupid asking, especially if you measured a plank and didn't understand why it wasn't literally 2X4 lol.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)