Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste Litre
Encyclopedia
Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste Litre is a fictional character created in 1978 by Kenneth Woolner of the University of Waterloo
in order to justify the use of a capital L to denote litre
s.
The International System of Units
accepts both the lower-case () and the upper-case () of the first letter in litre
, because it is often difficult to distinguish between the character "l" and the digit "1" in certain fonts or when handwritten in certain languages, such as English. Usually, however, the International System of Units only permits the use of a capital letter when the unit is named after a person.
Woolner perpetrated the hoax in the April
1978 issue of "CHEM 13 News", a newsletter concerned with chemistry for school teachers. According to the hoax, Claude Litre was born on 12 February 1716, the son of a manufacturer of wine bottles. During Litre's extremely distinguished fictional scientific career, he purportedly proposed a unit of volume measurement that was incorporated into the International System of Units
after his death in 1778.
The hoax was mistakenly printed as fact in the IUPAC journal Chemistry International, and subsequently retracted.
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
in order to justify the use of a capital L to denote litre
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
s.
The International System of Units
Si
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
accepts both the lower-case (
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
, because it is often difficult to distinguish between the character "l" and the digit "1" in certain fonts or when handwritten in certain languages, such as English. Usually, however, the International System of Units only permits the use of a capital letter when the unit is named after a person.
Woolner perpetrated the hoax in the April
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day is celebrated in different countries around the world on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when many people play all kinds of jokes and foolishness...
1978 issue of "CHEM 13 News", a newsletter concerned with chemistry for school teachers. According to the hoax, Claude Litre was born on 12 February 1716, the son of a manufacturer of wine bottles. During Litre's extremely distinguished fictional scientific career, he purportedly proposed a unit of volume measurement that was incorporated into the International System of Units
Si
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
after his death in 1778.
The hoax was mistakenly printed as fact in the IUPAC journal Chemistry International, and subsequently retracted.