this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
244 points (95.9% liked)

pics

25565 readers
1001 users here now

Rules:

1.. Please mark original photos with [OC] in the title if you're the photographer

2..Pictures containing a politician from any country or planet are prohibited, this is a community voted on rule.

3.. Image must be a photograph, no AI or digital art.

4.. No NSFW/Cosplay/Spam/Trolling images.

5.. Be civil. No racism or bigotry.

Photo of the Week Rule(s):

1.. On Fridays, the most upvoted original, marked [OC], photo posted between Friday and Thursday will be the next week's banner and featured photo.

2.. The weekly photos will be saved for an end of the year run off.

Weeks 2023

Instance-wide rules always apply. https://mastodon.world/about

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

16 inches is the maximum diameter of the shell. They're about as big around as a man's chest. There's video on Youtube of a man squeezing down the barrel of one of these guns.

"Caliber" in naval guns actually refers to the length of the barrel in multiples of its bore. USS North Carolina's main guns are 16 inch, 45 caliber. Which means they're 45*16 inches =720 inches / 12 inches to a foot = 60 feet long. The Iowa class' guns are 16 inch 50 caliber, they're about 7 feet longer.