Litre

Litre

The litre (British English spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI unit symbol: L or l) is a metric unit of volume that is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm^3), 1,000 cubic centimetres (cm^3) or 1/1,000 cubic metre. A cubic decimetre (or litre) occupies a volume of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm (see figure for explanation) and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre.

The original French metric system used the litre as a base unit. The word litre is derived from an older French unit, the litron, whose name came from Greek — where it was a measure of weight, not volume — via Latin, and which equalled approximately 0.831 litres. The litre was also used in several subsequent versions of the metric system and is accepted for use with the SI, although not an SI unit — the SI unit of volume is the cubic metre (m^3). The spelling used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is "litre", a spelling which is shared by almost all English-speaking countries. The spelling "liter" is predominantly used in American English.

In response to the French Revolution, the French Academy of Sciences charged a commission with determining a single scale for all measures. On 7 April 1795, the commission decreed that the new definition for the litre would be equal to one cubic decimetre, thus aligning its definition with the earlier definition of the metre. In 1797, the litre was defined in the law of 18 Germinal as the volume of a cube with sides of one-tenth of a metre (a decimetre).

History

The litre was introduced in France in 1795 as one of the new "Republican Measures of France" and included amongst the new metric system of units introduced as a result of the French Revolution. The original decimetre was 44.344 lignes, which is slightly more than 1/10 of a metre, making the original litre slightly more than a cubic decimetre. The litre was redefined as exactly one cubic decimetre in 1964 by the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM).

Usage

The litre is used in several countries, primarily in Europe, as a unit of volume for liquid or gaseous substances, such as gases, liquids, or certain solids. It is also used to measure volumetric flow rate in the medical and automotive industries.

See also

• Cubic metre
• Cubic centimetre
• Cubic decimetre
• Metric system
• SI units

References

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