The symbol for the gal is "Gal", and it's a unit of acceleration, not mass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal_%28unit%29

--- Stan Jakuba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Now I remember another "kg" substitution, where the G stood for the gal, a 
> shortened Galileo. It
> has the advantage of being derived from the name of a scientist connected 
> with the subject, and
> it adheres to the BIPM rule for symbol being a "capital letter" only if 
> derived from a proper
> name.
> Stan J.
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Pat Naughtin 
>   To: U.S. Metric Association 
>   Cc: U.S. Metric Association 
>   Sent: 08 Jan 30, Wednesday 04:56
>   Subject: [USMA:40308] Re: kg
> 
> 
>   On 2008/01/30, at 2:06 AM, Pierre Abbat wrote:
> 
> 
>     The problem with using "G" for the grave is that it has since been used 
> for 
>     the gauss. Even though the gauss has been replaced with the tesla, more 
>     people would think "gauss" when they see "G" as a unit symbol.
> 
> 
>     Pierre
> 
> 
>   Dear All,
> 
> 
>   Perhaps now is the time to re-suggest the word 'gry' as an international 
> unit, only this time
> for mass rather than length. I would pronounce this as in 'angry' and 
> 'hungry'. It seems to have
> several properties that might make it useful:
>   1 It is a short word
>   2 It has only one syllable
>   3 It is not used elsewhere in the English language and I suspect that it is 
> not used much in
> other languages (although I don't know if this is the case).
>   4 It has a connotation of being an abbreviation of the word, 'gravity', 
> which is a property
> shared by all objects with mass
>   5 It fits well with the prefixes and it is easy to pronouce either alone or 
> in combination
> (say out loud: nanogry, microgry, milligry, gry, kilogry, megagry, gigagry 
> etc).
>   6 The word gry has a long (classical) history in that it is derived from 
> the ancient Greek
> word, gry, where it meant 'a small amount'. This use seems to imply a small 
> amount of mass
> rather than a small amount of length but my Greek isn't up to such subtleties.
>   7 The idea of using a gry as a measuring unit (for length) goes back to 
> John Locke in 1679
> only 11 years after John Wilkins developed the original idea for an 
> international system based
> on a 'universal measure'.
>   8 Thomas Jefferson probably developed his ideas for a decimal measuring 
> system from John
> Locke's gry but he used the word point instead in his 1790 report.
>   9 The clash with the gauss is not a great issue as the gauss is deprecated 
> anyhow. Surely it's
> time for our magnetic friends to move on!
>   10 The gry could then have the symbol G
> 
> 
>   The web site at: http://www.onlineunitconversion.com/gry_to_shackle.html 
> says 'In 1813, the
> gry was revived in another decimal measurement scheme in Britain.' but I have 
> never heard of
> such a scheme at that time. Can anyone help me with details of a decimal 
> measurement scheme in
> the UK in 1813?
> 
> 
>   Of course there is the small problem of the gry riddle (see:
> http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/article008.html ) but I digress as this 
> is definitely off
> topic.
> 
> 
>   Cheers,
> 
>   Pat Naughtin
> 
> 
>   PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
>   Geelong, Australia
>   Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
> 
> 
>   Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped 
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> 



      
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