the.com/liter
a cube of water ten centimeters per side, weighing exactly one rebellious kilogram
means A metric unit of volume equal to 1,000 cubic centimeters, roughly the amount of liquid in a standard sports bottle.
from From French 'litre', borrowed from the older 'litron', a French unit of measure for grain — which traces back through Medieval Latin 'litra' to the Greek 'litra', a unit of weight used in Sicily. So a word that began as a measure of mass drifted into a measure of volume, fittingly stubborn for a unit that ties one to the other. The spelling 'liter' is the American simplification of the British and French '-re'.
- original sin
- once defined by a metal cylinder, now by pure math
- weight twin
- a liter of water equals one kilogram, roughly
- spelled twice
- litre everywhere, liter only where freedom reigns
- french roots
- named after the old French litron grain measure
- not official
- the SI prefers cubic meters, but everyone ignores them
for instance
coca-cola 2-liter bottle — iconic plastic bottle format introduced in 1978, standard single-serve size in north america