What does the label on a tire mean? I went to a bike shop for new tires. I did not know which tires fit on my bike, so I just showed them my bike.

When I took a look at the new tires, there was a label at the side, which says:


  40-622 (700x38C-28x1 5/8 x 1 1/2)


What do all these numbers mean? I am asking for two reasons:


I would like to find the right tires for my bike in the future myself
When buying another bike, I would like to buy one where I can use this tires as well
The 40 is the inflated width in mm and the 622 is the internal diameter in mm. It's the international standard ISO-5775 for tire sizes. In brackets are the French size (700mm outer diameter x 38mm width) and the Inch size (28 outer diameter x 1 5/8 height x 1 1/2 width)

Wikipedia has a very detailed explanation of tire sizes and designations, I confirmed my answer on this page.