Scrupuli

unit of measure:

fractions of a pound:

multiples of a pound:

AVOIRDUPOIS (AV)

Middle English avoir de pois, commodities sold by weight, alteration of Old French aveir de peis, goods of weight : aveir, avoir, to have (from Latin habre. See able) + de, of (from Latin d, from. See de-) + peis, pois, weight (from Vulgar Latin *psum, from Latin pnsum, past participle of pendere, to hang. See (s)pen- in Indo-European Roots). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

POUND (LB)

In the United States, the pound is no longer a unit of weight. It is a unit of mass, whose value was defined in terms of the kilogram in 1893, and altered slightly in 1894 and again in 1959.

KILOGRAM (KG)

1 kilogram was originally the mass of 1 liter of pure water at a temperature of 3.98 degrees Celsius (°C) and 1 atm (standard atmospheric pressure). Now 1 kilogram is the mass of a particular standard mass in France. This reference mass seems to have lost about 50 micrograms in the last 100 years. (By definition it is more accurate to say that any other object in the universe that had a mass of 1.000 000 kg 100 years ago, and has not changed since then, now has a mass of about 1.000 050 kg.)

LITER (L)

1,000 liters ≡ 1 cubic meter.

METER (M)

1 meter is the length of the path travelled by light in absolute vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 seconds.

SECOND (S)

1 second ≡ 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium-133 atom.

DEGREE CELSIUS (°C)

The current official definition of the Celsius temperature scale sets 0.01 °C at the triple point of water, and defines a degree to be 1/273.16 of the difference in temperature between the triple point of water and absolute zero.

TRIPLE POINT OF WATER

The single combination of pressure and temperature at which water, ice, and water vapour can coexist in a stable equilibrium occurs at exactly 0.01 °C and a pressure of 611.73 pascals.

PASCAL (PA)

1 pascal ≡ 1 newton per square meter.

NEWTON (N)

1 newton is the amount of force required to accelerate a mass of 1 kilogram at a rate of 1 meter per second squared. (Thus the original definition of kilogram is circular.)

ABSOLUTE ZERO

Absolute zero is defined as the temperature at which all motion of particles would theoretically cease.

STANDARD ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE (1 ATM)

1 atm ≡ 101 325 pascals. This “standard atmosphere” is an arbitrary representative value for pressure at sea level.

GRAIN

Originally, the weight of a grain seed from the middle of an ear of barley.

OUNCE (OZ)

From Latin uncia, meaning a 12th part. (The Roman pound was divided into 12 ounces. The word "inch," meaning 12th of a foot, has the same root.) The symbol oz is from the old Italian word onza (now spelled oncia).

DRAM (DRACHM)

Possibly originated as the weight of silver in ancient greek coin “drachma.”