Gram Unit sign g Measure Mass Base Unit kilogram Multiple of Base 10−3 System SI, CGS, other Common usage Commonly used in cooking and drug measuring. Examples One millilitre of water is 1 g at 4 °C. Typical coins: a euro is 7.5 g and a US penny is 2.5 g Conversion SI 10 dg = 1 g = 0.1 dag = 0.001 kg Imperial 1 g ≈ 0.0353 ounce ≈ 0.00220 pound see also: Orders of magnitude (mass) Next units decigram < Gram < decagram Pen cap, about 1 gram For other uses of the words gram or gramme, see gram (disambiguation).

The gram (also gramme in some British English texts),12 (Greek/Latin root grámma); symbol g, is a unit of mass. Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice"3 (later 4 °C), a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or 1×10−3 kg, which itself is defined as being equal to the mass of a physical prototype preserved by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Contents 1 Symbol and abbreviations 2 History 3 Uses 4 Conversion factors 5 Comparisons 6 References 7 See also 8 External links // Symbol and abbreviations

The International System of Units symbol for the gram is g followed the numeric value with a space, as in "640 g". (symbols are language-neutral, abbreviations are not).45 In some fields and regions, the international standard units for units are used quite strictly, in particular in technical and scientific publications and in legally regulated product labels. In other contexts, a wide range of other unofficial abbreviations have been encountered, such as gr, gm, grm, gms, grms. The use of abbreviations such as "gm", "Gm", or "GM" for grams could potentially lead to serious errors in healthcare settings where accidentally transposing "gm" to "mg" (milligrams) would result in a 1000 times dosage difference. It would therefore be prudent to use "g" as the symbol (and in English, the abbreviation6) for grams in any healthcare setting. History

It was the base unit of mass in the original French metric system and the later centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system of units. The word originates from Late Latin gramma – a small weight. Uses The gram is today the most widely used unit of measurement for non-liquid ingredients in cooking and grocery shopping worldwide. For food products that are typically sold in quantities far less than 1 kg, the unit price is normally given per 100 g.

Most standards and legal requirements for nutrition labels on food products require relative contents to be stated per 100 g of the product, such that the resulting figure can also be read as a percentage. Conversion factors 1 gram (g) = 15.4323583529 grains (gr) 1 grain (gr) = 0.06479891 grams (g) 1 avoirdupois ounce (oz) = 28.349523125 grams (g) 1 troy ounce (ozt) = 31.1034768 grams (g) 1 gram (g) = 8.98755179×1013 joules (J) (by mass-energy equivalence) Comparisons 1 gram is equal to 1 small paper clip References ^ "AskOxford: gram". English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2009. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/gram?view=uk. Retrieved 2009-06-27.  ^ "Weights and Measures Act 1985 (c. 72)". The UK Statute Law Database. Office of Public Sector Information. http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?activeTextDocId=2191980. Retrieved 2011-01-26. "§92."  ^ Décret relatif aux poids et aux mesures, 1795 ^ SI brochure, Section 3.2 ^ NIST Special Publication 811 ^ The Greek for gram is "γραμμάριο"; its abbreviation is "γρ", but its symbol is "g" See also Conversion of units Duella Gold gram External links grams (weight) conversion to spoons (volume) as used in cooking