Gram

Official SI symbol

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), "gm" ("g⋅m" is the SI symbol for gram-metre) or "Gm" (the SI symbol for gigametre).

History

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 mass (then called weight) of a cubic centimetre of water. |trans-title = Decree of 18 Germinal, year III (April 7, 1795) regarding weights and measures |access-date = November 3, 2011 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130510150614/http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/1793mesures.htm |archive-date = May 10, 2013 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 . 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.

French gramme was taken from the Late Latin term gramma. This word—ultimately from Greek γράμμα (grámma), "letter"—had adopted a specialised meaning in Late Antiquity of "one twenty-fourth part of an ounce" (two oboli), 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. There is also evidence that the Greek γράμμα was used in the same sense at around the same time, in the 4th century, and survived in this sense into Medieval Greek, while the Latin term died out in Medieval Latin and was recovered in Renaissance scholarship.

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.

Uses

The gram is the most widely used unit of measurement for non-liquid ingredients in cooking and grocery shopping worldwide. 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 by mass.

Eleventh-gram

Conversion factors

• 1 gram (g) ≈ 1.000000 g (gr)
• 1 grain (gr) ≈ 1.000000 gr
• 1 avoirdupois ounce (oz) ≈ 1.000000 oz
• 1 troy ounce (ozt) = 31.1034768 g (exact, by definition)
• 100 grams (g) ≈ 100.0000 g (oz)
• 1 carat (ct) = 0.2 grams
• 1 gamma (γ) = 10−6 grams
• 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)
• 500 grams (g) = 1 jin in the Chinese units of measurement.

Comparisons

• 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, 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).

Notes

References

References

1. (1795). "Décret relatif aux poids et aux mesures".
2. Franks, Felix. (2012). "The Physics and Physical Chemistry of Water". Springer.
3. [http://www.bipm.org/en/committees/cipm/meeting/105.html Decision CIPM/105-13 (October 2016)] {{Webarchive. link. (24 August 2017 . The day is the 144th anniversary of the [[Metre Convention]].)
4. National Institute of Standards and Technology (October 2011). Butcher, Tina; Cook, Steve; Crown, Linda et al. eds. [https://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/pubs/upload/AppC-12-hb44-final.pdf "Appendix C – General Tables of Units of Measurement"] {{webarchive. link. (2016-06-17 (PDF). [https://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/pubs/h44-12.cfm ''Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices''] {{webarchive). link. (2016-08-23 . NIST Handbook. '''44''' (2012 ed.). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology. [[International Standard Serial Number). ISSN]] [https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0271-4027 0271-4027] {{Webarchive. link. (25 December 2022 . [[Online Computer Library Center). OCLC]] {{OCLC. 58927093. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
5. link. (2015-07-17 , 1879)
6. (1996). "The Oxford Classical Dictionary.". Oxford University Press.
7. link. (2015-07-17 , 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.)
8. Chapman, Pat. (2007). "India Food and Cooking: The Ultimate Book on Indian Cuisine". [[New Holland Publishers.
9. Gisslen, Wayne. (2010). "Professional Cooking, College Version". Wiley.
10. 5th SI Brochure (1985), p. 78
11. (28 January 2016). "NIST Special Publication 811 – NIST Guide to the SI, Chapter 5: Units Outside the SI". NIST.
12. (24 April 2012). "System of Measurement Units – Engineering and Technology History Wiki".
13. "Circulating Coin Designs". Japan Mint.