cubic VVV

[Baker, John]

        The liter is no longer a measure in the International System of Units (SI) (the "metric system"), although it was previously, at which time James Smith's description was accurate.  In 1964, the 12th Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures abrogated the old definition, declared that a liter may be employed as a special name for the cubic decimeter, and recommended that the liter not be employed to give the results of high-accuracy volume measurements.  See the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures brochure at http://www.bipm.org/utils/en/pdf/si-brochure.pdf.  The basic SI unit of volume is now the cubic meter.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of James Smith
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 5:57 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: cubic VVV

No, actually a liter is the volume of exactly 1 kg of pure water at 3.98 °C and under a pressure of 1 atm.
It is also exactly ten deciliters.  However, because of a measurement error early in the merification process, 1 liter equals 1.000027 cubic decimeters.
Within the limits of accuracy for most real-world measurements, the difference is negligible.

Accurate current reference works give 1 liter =
1.000027 cubic decimeter = 1000.027 cubic centimeters and 1 milliliter = 1.000027 cubic centimeter.

As I understand - but I may be mislead on this part of the tale - in the original metric scheme there was no liter, the cubic centimeter was the standard of volume  and the liter came to be because of this measurement error.

--- Chris Waigl <cwaigl at FREE.FR> wrote:

> Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> Whatever the history[1], one cubic decimeter is _exactly_ one liter.
>