Gram Explained

gram
Standard:	SI
Quantity:	Mass
Symbol:	g
Units1:	SI base units
Inunits1:	10⁻³ kilograms
Units2:	CGS units
Inunits2:	1 gram
Units3:	Imperial units U.S. customary
Inunits3:	1g
Units4:	Atomic mass units

The gram (originally gramme;^[1] 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 as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre [1 [[Cubic centimetre|cm<sup>3</sup>]]], and at the temperature of melting ice",^[2] 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). The kilogram, as of 2019, is defined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures from the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant .^[3]

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),^[4] "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 weight of a cubic centimetre of water.^[5] ^[6]

French gramme was taken from the Late Latin term Latin: gramma. This word—ultimately from Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γράμμα (grámma), "letter"—had adopted a specialised meaning in Late Antiquity of "one twenty-fourth part of an ounce" (two oboli),^[7] 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 Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γράμμα was used in the same sense at around the same time, in the 4th century, and survived in this sense into Medieval Greek,^[8] 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.^[9] ^[10] 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 factors

1 gram (g) ≈ 1g (gr)
1 grain (gr) ≈ 1disp=outNaNdisp=out
1 avoirdupois ounce (oz) ≈ 1disp=outNaNdisp=out
1 troy ounce (ozt) = 31.1034768 g (exact, by definition)
100 grams (g) ≈ 100disp=outNaNdisp=out (oz)
1 carat (ct) = 0.2 grams
1 gamma (γ) = 10⁻⁶ grams^[11] ^[12]
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) ^[13]
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,^[14] 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 and References

Web site: Weights and Measures Act 1985 (c. 72) . The UK Statute Law Database . Office of Public Sector Information . §92. . 2011-01-26 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20080912105635/http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?activeTextDocId=2191980 . 2008-09-12 .
Web site: Décret relatif aux poids et aux mesures . fr . https://web.archive.org/web/20130225163152/http://smdsi.quartier-rural.org/histoire/18germ_3.htm . 2013-02-25 . 1795 .
http://www.bipm.org/en/committees/cipm/meeting/105.html Decision CIPM/105-13 (October 2016)
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" (PDF). Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices . NIST Handbook. 44 (2012 ed.). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology. ISSN 0271-4027 . OCLC . Retrieved 30 June 2012.
Web site: Décret relatif aux poids et aux mesures du 18 germinal an 3 (7 avril 1795) . fr . Decree of 18 Germinal, year III (April 7, 1795) regarding weights and measures . Grandes lois de la République . Digithèque de matériaux juridiques et politiques, Université de Perpignan . November 3, 2011 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20130510150614/http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/1793mesures.htm . 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.
Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary s.v. "gramma", 1879
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon (revised and augmented edition, Oxford, 1940) s.v. γράμμα, 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.
Book: Pat Chapman . India Food and Cooking: The Ultimate Book on Indian Cuisine . 2007 . New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd . London . 978-1845376192 . 64 . 2014-11-20 . Most of the world uses the metric system to weigh and measure. This book puts metric first, followed by imperial because the US uses it (with slight modifications which need not concern us). .
Book: Gisslen, Wayne . Professional Cooking, College Version . Wiley . New York . 2010 . 107 . 978-0-470-19752-3 . 2011-04-20 . The system of measurement used in the United States is complicated. Even when people have used the system all their lives, they still sometimes have trouble remembering things like how many fluid ounces are in a quart or how many feet are in a mile. ... The United States is the only major country that uses almost exclusively the complex system of measurement we have just described..
5th SI Brochure (1985), p. 78
NIST Special Publication 811 – NIST Guide to the SI, Chapter 5: Units Outside the SI. NIST . 28 January 2016 . 2022-12-10. 12 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160812121900/http://nist.gov/pml/pubs/sp811/sec05.cfm. live.
Web site: System of Measurement Units – Engineering and Technology History Wiki. ethw.org. 24 April 2012 . 29 April 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20180429231359/http://ethw.org/System_of_Measurement_Units. 29 April 2018.
Web site: Circulating Coin Designs . Japan Mint . 7 March 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090918202540/http://www.mint.go.jp/eng/kids/circulating_c.html . 18 September 2009 .