A paper clip, the cap of a ballpoint pen, a stick of gum, a United States bill of any denomination, a quarter teaspoon of sugar, a raisin, and a thumbtack all weigh around 1 gramme. The gramme is a unit of mass measurement that corresponds to 0.001 kilogramme.
The word “gramme” comes from the Late Latin word “gramma,” which means “little weight.” It was originally the base unit of the French metric system and is abbreviated “g.” The mass of 1 cubic centimetre of pure water at 4 degrees Celsius is about equivalent to one gramme. Initially, it was measured using this standard. Later, it began to be calculated using the International Bureau of Weights and Measures’ physical prototype.
The gramme is one unit of the larger International System of Units, the current variant of the metric system and, as of 2014, the most extensively used system of measurement worldwide. Grams are used as the standard unit of measurement for solid and semisolid cooking ingredients, and the majority of food labels list the nutritional content in grammes. In cooking, one gramme is equivalent to approximately 0.035 ounces, 0.002 pounds, or 0.004 cups.
