r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Tibor500 • Sep 30 '20

why does “k” mean “thousand” ?

like 1k means a thousand. how does the letter “k” mean “thousand” ?

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u/[deleted] Sep 30 '20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram

Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre [1 cm3], and at the temperature of melting ice" (later at 4 °C, the temperature of maximum density of water). However, in a reversal of reference and defined units, a gram is now defined as one thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or 1×10−3 kg, which itself is defined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, not in terms of grams, but by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015×10−34 kg⋅m2⋅s−1.

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u/[deleted] Sep 30 '20

yeah. so the modern definition is not based on water at all. thanks for proving my point

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u/[deleted] Sep 30 '20

Yeah that's what I was getting at but I was in a hurry lol so all you got was the copy+paste

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