Engineering tolerance

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Engineering tolerance is the permissible limit or limits of variation in:

1. a physical dimension;
2. a measured value or physical property of a material, manufactured object, system, or service;
3. other measured values (such as temperature, humidity, etc.);
4. in engineering and safety, a physical distance or space (tolerance), as in a truck (lorry), train or boat under a bridge as well as a train in a tunnel (see structure gauge and loading gauge);
5. in mechanical engineering, the space between a bolt and a nut or a hole, etc.

Dimensions, properties, or conditions may have some variation without significantly affecting functioning of systems, machines, structures, etc. A variation beyond the tolerance (for example, a temperature that is too hot or too cold) is said to be noncompliant, rejected, or exceeding the tolerance.