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I seem to recall a post on the front page of HN discussing the incredible tolerances they achieve, at an almost unthinkable scale. You can buy Lego blocks anyw
by braythwayt 7y ago
I seem to recall a post on the front page of HN discussing the incredible tolerances they achieve, at an almost unthinkable scale.
You can buy Lego blocks anywhere in the world, and they click perfectly with Lego blocks purchased anywhere else in the world, and purchased at just about any time in the past or present.
- vidarh 7y agoI think one of the best illustrations is the connecting pins [1], as the link shows people don't even always realize why they specifically distinguish them. But the black one has a fraction of a mm indentation that produces extra friction, and so makes structures connected with it more rigid, but they still fit in all the same holes. Apart from the tolerances that also illustrates what their competitors rarely get right - Lego tends to opt for pieces that are generic enough to be reusable in as many contexts as possible where a lot of the competitors have sets full of pieces that are unmistakably one specific thing. That lets them not worry so much about the tolerances - if it works in that one context reliably, then it's fine. But the downside is it makes the sets even less flexible. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/4uv5tl/why_does_lego_produce_both_the_black_and_grey/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/4uv5tl/why_does_lego_...