K'nex Measurement

We can consider the thickness of a blue spacer to be the fundamental unit of distance in the Knex system. Note that in some cases this is just a good approximation since there are factors of the square root of two involved.

• Each connector would be two such units thick.
• The distance from the centerline of the shaft bearing hole of a connector to the outside edge of the connector's clip is 6 units.

Thus, the center to center distance for two connectors connected by a strut is as follows:

Gear and pulley dimensions (thickness and radius in spacer units):

How did I come up with hese numbers? Take a look at this picture.

What can we see:

• The thickness of a connector is twice that of a blue spacer. This is shown more definitively in my page about shaft lengths .
• The center to center distance of two connectors separated by a green strut is 10 blue spacers, plus two more to accout for the thickness of the shaft or connectors, for a total distance of 12 blue spacers.
• The radius of a connector, that is, the distance from its center to the edge of its clips, is half that, or 6 blue spacers.
• The center to center distance of two connectors separated by a white strut is 5 blue spacers longer than that of a green strut.