International System of Units

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International System of Units

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

International System of Units officially called the Système International d'Unités, or SI, system of units adopted by the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures (1960). It is based on the metric system . The basic units of length, mass, and time are those of the mks system of metric units: the meter , kilogram , and second . Other basic units are the ampere of electric current, the kelvin of temperature (a degree of temperature measured on the Kelvin temperature scale ), the candela, or candle , of luminous intensity, and the mole , used to measure the amount of a substance present. All other units are derived from these basic units.

Bibliography: See U.S. National Bureau of Standards, Spec. Pub. 330, International System of Units (1971).

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International System of Units

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | © The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009, originally published by Oxford University Press 2009. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

In·ter·na·tion·al Sys·tem of U·nits • n. a system of physical units (SI Units) based on the meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, candela, and mole, together with a set of prefixes to indicate multiplication or division by a power of ten.

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