Gross (unit)

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In English and related languages, several terms involving the words "great" or "gross" (possibly, from French: grosse thick) relate to numbers involving multiples of twelve (a dozen):

  • A gross refers to a group of 144 items (a dozen dozen).[1][2]
  • A great gross refers to a group of 1728 items (a dozen gross).[1][2]
  • A small gross[3] or a great hundred[4] refers to a group of 120 items (ten dozen).

A gross may be abbreviatied as "gr" or "gro".

The continued use of these numbers in measurement and counting represents a holdover of the duodecimal number system in modern usage[5] and has encouraged groups such as the Duodecimal Society of America to advocate for a wider use of such a numbering system in place of decimal.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Schwartzman, Steven (1996), The Words of Mathematics: An Etymological Dictionary of Mathematical Terms Used in English, Mathematical Association of America, pp. 100–101, ISBN 9780883855119 .
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Darling, David (2004), The Universal Book of Mathematics: From Abracadabra to Zeno's Paradoxes, John Wiley & Sons, p. 140, ISBN 9780471270478 .
  3. ↑ Wright, Carroll Davidson (1910), The New Century Book of Facts: A Handbook of Ready Reference, King-Richardson Company, p. 462 .
  4. ↑ Wells, David (1997), The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers (3rd ed.), Penguin, p. 66, ISBN 9780140261493 .
  5. ↑ Gullberg, Jan (1997), Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 9780393040029 .
  6. ↑ Dudley, Underwood (1996), Mathematical Cranks, Cambridge University Press, p. 22, ISBN 9780883855072 .
  7. ↑ Bellos, Alex (2012-12-12), "Dozenalists of the world unite! Rise up against the tyranny of ten!", The Guardian .


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