Apothecaries' system between actual and nominal weight. In the 19th century, most European countries or cities still had at least a "commercial" or "civil" system (such as the English avoirdupois system) for general trading, and a second system (such as the troy system) for precious metals such as gold and silver. The system for precious metals was usually divided in a different way from the commercial system, often using special units such as the carat. More significantly, it was often based on different weight standards. The apothecaries' system often used the same ounces as the precious metals system, although even then the
Specific weight Specific weight The specific weight (also known as the unit weight) is the weight per unit volume of a material. The symbol of specific weight is γ (the Greek letter Gamma). A commonly used value is the specific weight of water on Earth at 4°C which is 9.807 kN/m or 62.43 lbf/ft. The terms "specific gravity", and less often "specific weight", are also used for relative density. where Unlike density, specific weight is not absolute. It depends upon the value of the gravitational acceleration, which varies with location. A significant influence upon the value of specific gravity is the temperature