Abstract
THE point raised by Mr. Cumming in last week's NATURE (vol. xxxvii. p. 584), as to the use of the words density and specific gravity is, it seems to me, of some importance. For many years past I have, in my lectures, taken the law into my own hands in this matter, and, defining density as the mass of unit volume, I have defined specific gravity, in the way Mr. Cumming suggests in the last paragraph of his letter, as the weight of unit volume (or rather, lest I should cause any to offend against the examiner, I have thus defined absolute specific gravity, or specific gravity proper, and have pointed out that the definition commonly given was the definition of relative specific gravity). We thus get the parallel relations—
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FOSTER, G. Density and Specific Gravity. Nature 38, 6 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/038006b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/038006b0
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