LEGO Techniques - Stud Height

At the end of the Reverse Engineering Challenge 4 I posted a picture on Flickr with a rather impassioned description. There had been some discussion as to what the height of studs are and whether or not they cause conflict in builds. The myth traveling around is that stud height is half of a plate, or, 1.6mm. As my picture shows, this is incorrect.

But there are times when it seems like the only explanation for stud height is that it MUST be 1.6mm.

Take for example the above picture. This little tablescrap attempts to show stud conflict. Notable is the top of the 1x2 technic brick with axle hole against the 1x2 technic brick with 2 pin holes. You would look at this and immediately think, "Duh, you just disproved your point. Studs are half a plate high, done."

Au contraire, my AFOL. Remember how I discussed the true dimensions of a LEGO brick? You would think at first blush that the white brick is 16mm across right? But it's not, it's 15.8mm. The height of the stud from the yellow brick would be the half plate difference from the white to black brick PLUS the tolerance factor of the white brick; 1.6mm + 0.1mm = 1.7mm. Some say the stud is 1.8mm but this shows it to be impossible. As for the logo? Negligible.