This article is about the unit of mass. For other uses of "gr" "gram" and "gramme", see
Gram (disambiguation).
The gram (alternative British English spelling: gramme;[1] SI unit symbol: g) (Greek/Latin root grámma) is a metric system unit of mass.
Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice"[2] (later 4 °C), a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or 1×10−3 kg, which itself is defined as being equal to the mass of a physical prototype preserved by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.
Symbol and abbreviations
The International System of Units (SI) unit symbol for the gram is "g" following the numeric value with a space, as in "640 g". While some authors use ad-hoc abbreviations, this creates confusion. For example, the use of abbreviations such as "gm", "Gm", or "GM" for grams could potentially lead to serious errors in health-care settings where accidentally transposing "gm" to "mg" (milligrams) could result in a 1,000 times dosage error. It is therefore important to use "g" as specified in the SI standard to avoid confusion or misunderstanding.
History
It was the base unit of mass in the original French metric system and the later centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system of units. The word originates from Late Latin gramma – a small weight.
Uses
The gram is today the most widely used unit of measurement for non-liquid ingredients in cooking and grocery shopping worldwide. For food products that are typically sold in quantities far less than 1 kg, the unit price is normally given per 100 g.
Most 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
Comparisons
See also
References
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^ "Weights and Measures Act 1985 (c. 72)". The UK Statute Law Database. Office of Public Sector Information. Retrieved 2011-01-26. "§92."
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^ Décret relatif aux poids et aux mesures, 1795
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^ "Circulating Coin Designs". Japan Mint. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
External links
