cubic VVV

[Joel S. Berson]

Confirming how some such errors occur:  "One
cubic milliliter of water" below should have been "one cubic centimeter".

I wrote "approximately" unclearly.  I meant that
one liter of water weighs approximately 1000
grams, the gram being the presumed weight of one
cubic milliliter of water in the early definition of the metric system.

Joel

At 9/27/2005 04:01 PM, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail
>header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Chris Waigl <cwaigl at FREE.FR>
>Subject:      Re: cubic VVV
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> >Perhaps this added to the confusions, "one cubic decimeter" (of
> >water, approx. one liter) becoming "one cubic liter".
> >
> >
>
>Whatever the history[1], one cubic decimeter is _exactly_ one liter.
>
>Chris Waigl
>
>[1] I learned this the way Wikipedia explains it: "In 1793, the litre
>was introduced in France <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France> as one of
>the new "Republican Measures", and defined as one cubic decimetre. [...]
>In 1901, at the 3rd CGPM
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conf%C3%A9rence_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale_des_Poids_et_Mesures>
>conference, the litre was redefined as the space occupied by 1 kg of
>pure water <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water> at the temperature of
>its maximum density (3.98 °C) under a pressure of 1 atm
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_pressure>. This made the litre
>equal to about 1.000 028 dm³ (earlier reference works usually put it at
>1.000 027 dm³). [...] In 1964, at the 12th CGPM
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conf%C3%A9rence_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale_des_Poids_et_Mesures>
>conference, the litre was once again defined in exact relation to the
>metre, as another name for the cubic decimetre, that is, exactly 1 dm³."
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liter>