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The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI (from French Système international d'unités), is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement.
See Weight for detail of mass/weight distinction and conversion. Avoirdupois is a system of mass based on a pound of 16 ounces, while Troy weight is the system of mass where 12 troy ounces equals one troy pound. The symbol g 0 is used to denote standard gravity in order to avoid confusion with the (upright) g symbol for gram.
James Clerk Maxwell played a major role in developing the concept of a coherent CGS system and in extending the metric system to include electrical units. Each variant of the metric system has a degree of coherence—the derived units are directly related to the base units without the need for intermediate conversion factors. [18]
Metric units are units based on the metre, gram or second and decimal (power of ten) multiples or sub-multiples of these. According to Schadow and McDonald, [ 1 ] metric units, in general, are those units "defined 'in the spirit' of the metric system, that emerged in late 18th century France and was rapidly adopted by scientists and engineers.
It established a US Metric Board whose functions as of 1 October 1982 were transferred to the Dept of Commerce, Office of Metric Programs, to coordinate the voluntary conversion to the metric system. [92] In January 2007 NASA decided to use metric units for all future Moon missions, in line with the practice of other space agencies. [93]
The avoirdupois units of mass and weight differ for units larger than a pound (lb). The British imperial system uses a stone of 14 lb, a long hundredweight of 112 lb and a long ton of 2,240 lb. The stone is not a measurement of weight used in the US. The US customary system uses the short hundredweight of 100 lb and short ton of 2,000 lb.
The specific weight, also known as the unit weight (symbol γ, the Greek letter gamma), is a volume-specific quantity defined as the weight W divided by the volume V of a material: = / Equivalently, it may also be formulated as the product of density, ρ, and gravity acceleration, g: = Its unit of measurement in the International System of Units (SI) is newton per cubic metre (N/m 3), with ...
Engineering notation can only be applied to simple units—temperatures, combinations, and some other special units will not work. Some examples using engineering notation follow. {{convert|123.4|e3m2}} → 123.4 thousand square metres (1.328 × 10 ^ 6 sq ft)