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From: ndiamond@watdaisy.UUCP (Norman Diamond)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Standardization
Message-ID: <7007@watdaisy.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Feb-85 12:37:33 EST
Article-I.D.: watdaisy.7007
Posted: Mon Feb 25 12:37:33 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Feb-85 05:38:14 EST
References: <283@gumby.UUCP> <5125@tektronix.UUCP> <289@gumby.UUCP> <297@gumby.UUCP> <6994@watdaisy.UUCP> <1017@watdcsu.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 26

> A litre is not exactly 1000 cc?  OK, let's get this straight.  The
> litre (or liter) is not a SI unit, but in the (old) metric system it
> is defined to be equal to one cubic decimetre.
> 				   \tom haapanen

I learned in grade 8, regarding the old metric system, that the "equivalence"
between millilitre and cubic centimetre was valid to around six 9's (i.e.,
an error of around 1.0e-6, give or take an order of magnitude or so).  That's
not exactly.

The reason is that the metre is 1/10,000,000 of an old estimate of the distance
from the North Pole to the Equator (I do not know along which longitude).  When
the litre was later defined, it was defined according to what a decimetre would
have been if the metre had been a little more accurate in the first place.  The
metre itself was left unchanged, however.  (And you thought that such nonsense
took place only with gets() and fgets() !) 

-- 

   Norman Diamond

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"Opinions are those of the keyboard, and do not reflect on me or higher-ups."