Gram
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox unit The gram (originally gramme;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> SI unit symbol g) is a unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram.
Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre [1 cm3], and at the temperature of melting ice",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the defining temperature (≈0 °C) was later changed to 4 °C, the temperature of maximum density of water.
By the late 19th century, there was an effort to make the base unit the kilogram and the gram a derived unit. In 1960, the new International System of Units defined a gram as one one-thousandth of a kilogram (i.e., one gram is Template:Val). The kilogram, as of 2019, is defined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures from the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant (Template:Mvar).<ref name="draft-resolution-A"> Template:Citation</ref><ref>Decision CIPM/105-13 (October 2016) Template:Webarchive. The day is the 144th anniversary of the Metre Convention.</ref>
Official SI symbolEdit
The only unit symbol for gram that is recognised by the International System of Units (SI) is "g" following the numeric value with a space, as in "640 g" to stand for "640 grams" in the English language. The SI disallows use of abbreviations such as "gr" (which is the symbol for grains),<ref name="NIST">National Institute of Standards and Technology (October 2011). Butcher, Tina; Cook, Steve; Crown, Linda et al. eds. "Appendix C – General Tables of Units of Measurement" Template:Webarchive (PDF). Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices Template:Webarchive. NIST Handbook. 44 (2012 ed.). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology. ISSN 0271-4027 Template:Webarchive. OCLC Template:OCLC. Retrieved 30 June 2012.</ref>Template:Rp "gm" ("g⋅m" is the SI symbol for gram-metre) or "Gm" (the SI symbol for gigametre).
HistoryEdit
The word gramme was adopted by the French National Convention in its 1795 decree revising the metric system as replacing the gravet (introduced in 1793 simultaneously with a base measure called grave, of which gravet was a subdivision). Its definition remained that of the weight of a cubic centimetre of water.<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref><ref>Convention nationale, décret du 1er août 1793, ed. Duvergier, Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlemens avis du Conseil d'état, publiée sur les éditions officielles du Louvre, vol. 6 (2nd ed. 1834), p. 70 Template:Webarchive. The metre (mètre) on which this definition depends was itself defined as the ten-millionth part of a quarter of Earth's meridian, given in traditional units as 3 pieds, 11.44 lignes (a ligne being the 12th part of an pouce (inch), or the 144th part of a pied.</ref>
French gramme was taken from the Late Latin term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. This word—ultimately from Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (grámma), "letter"—had adopted a specialised meaning in Late Antiquity of "one twenty-fourth part of an ounce" (two oboli),<ref>Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary s.v. "gramma" Template:Webarchive, 1879</ref> corresponding to about 1.14 modern grams. This use of the term is found in the carmen de ponderibus et mensuris ("poem about weights and measures") composed around 400 AD.Template:Efn There is also evidence that the Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} was used in the same sense at around the same time, in the 4th century, and survived in this sense into Medieval Greek,<ref>Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon (revised and augmented edition, Oxford, 1940) s.v. γράμμα Template:Webarchive, citing the 10th-century work Geoponica and a 4th-century papyrus edited in L. Mitteis, Griechische Urkunden der Papyrussammlung zu Leipzig, vol. i (1906), 62 ii 27.</ref> while the Latin term died out in Medieval Latin and was recovered in Renaissance scholarship.Template:Efn
The gram was the base unit of mass in the 19th-century centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). The CGS system coexisted with the metre–kilogram–second system of units (MKS), first proposed in 1901, during much of the 20th century, but the gram was displaced by the kilogram as the base unit for mass when the MKS system was chosen for the SI base units in 1960.
UsesEdit
The gram is the most widely used unit of measurement for non-liquid ingredients in cooking and grocery shopping worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Liquid ingredients are often measured by volume rather than mass.
Many standards and legal requirements for nutrition labels on food products require relative contents to be stated per 100 g of the product, such that the resulting figure can also be read as a percentage.
Conversion factorsEdit
- 1 gram (g) ≈ Template:Convert (gr)
- 1 grain (gr) ≈ Template:Convert
- 1 avoirdupois ounce (oz) ≈ Template:Convert
- 1 troy ounce (ozt) = 31.1034768 g (exact, by definition)
- 100 grams (g) ≈ Template:Convert (oz)
- 1 carat (ct) = 0.2 grams
- 1 gamma (γ) = 10−6 grams<ref>5th SI Brochure (1985), p. 78</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- 1 undecimogramme = 1 "eleventh-gram" = 10−11 grams in the historical quadrant–eleventh-gram–second system (QES system) a.k.a. hebdometre–undecimogramme–second system (HUS system) <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- 500 grams (g) = 1 jin in the Chinese units of measurement.
ComparisonsEdit
- 1 gram is roughly equal to the mass of 1 small paper clip or pen cap.
- The Japanese 1 yen coin has a mass of 1 gram,<ref name="Mint">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> lighter than the British penny (3.56 g), the United States penny (2.5 g), the Euro cent (2.30 g), and the Australian 5 cent coin (2.80 g).