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Re: Meauring Volts?



I wrote:

Suppose a recipe calls for measuring out 500
grams of sugar.
-- The _substance_ being measured is sugar.
-- The _quantity_ being measured is 500 grams.
-- The _unit_ of measurement is 1 gram,

SSHS KPHOX wrote:

Isn't the quantity to be measured the mass?
The measurement is 500 g.

Well, IMHO the original and primary meaning of
"quantity" is, literally, "how much".

I don't think "the mass" is an answer to the
question "how much".

If you think that "the mass" is the right
answer to the question of what quantity is
being measured, then OK, that nicely
reinforces the main point of my previous note,
namely that the orignal question was open
to multiple interpretations.

> A precision of language should aid in the precision of thought.

We can all agree about that!
(Even if we don't agree on what the precisely
correct language is.)

Many students will say they are going to measure the grams of the
sugar when they should be saying they are measuring the mass.
(Actually they say they are weighing it but that is another story.)

... Except in Amsterdam kitchens, where they don't measure
the mass by weighing it, they measure the mass with a
measuring cup ... (see recent note from Bill Wehrbein)