duh. yea they are. oops!
wheel sizing is so screwed anyway. 700cs are smaller than old school 27" rims, which makes 29s smaller than 27s. i had no idea that modern inch size didn't correspond with actual rim diameter measured in inches until i was shipping a 24" wheelset i sold on ebay. was measuring the box dimensions and kept thinking i'd screwed the measuring up because the box was less than 24" square.