RE: Litre/dm3

["Joe Alvarez" <jalvarez@auxier.com>]

According to ASTM E 380-79 Standard for Metric Practice, Apendix X1.11.1:

"Originally (1795) the litre was intended to be identical with the cubic 
decimetre.  The Third Geeral Conference on Weights and Measures, meeting 
1901, decided to define the litre as the volume occupied by the mass of one 
kilogram of pure water at its maximum density under normal atmospheric 
pressure.  Careful determinations subsequently established the litre so 
defined as being equivalent to 1.000028 dm3.  In 1964 the General 
Conference on Weights and Measures withdrew this definition of the litre, 
and declared that the word "litre" was a special name for the cubic 
decimetre.  Thus its use is permitted in SI, but is discouraged (restricted 
to liquids and gases), since it creates two units for the same quantity, 
and its use in precision measurements might conflict with measurements 
recorded under the old definition."

Joe Alvarez, Ph.D., CHP
Auxier & Associates, Inc.
9821 Cogdill Rd, Suite 1
Knoxville, TN 37932
Phone (423)675-3669
FAX: (423)675-3677
Email: jalvarez@auxier.com


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