Re: litre : l ou L ?

[Yves Maniette <yves@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Originellement il faut une minuscule, mais comme aux EUA la graphie
traditionnelle manuscrite ne fait pas de différence entre le l
minuscule et le chiffre 1, ils ont proposé au BIPM d'autoriser aussi
la majuscule. 

De plus, pour le ministère étasunien du commerce, c'est seule le L
majuscule qui vaut. 


conclusion: bien que les deux soient acceptées, il faut recommander l'emploi du
l minuscule, et éviter l'emploi de polices dont la différence entre  'l' et '1'
est peu marquée. 


Voici l'histoire complète du faux litre:

Un plaisantin avait, en 1977, pour satisfaire les exigences du BIPM
inventé  l'existence d'un nommé Jean-Baptiste litre. Et cela a si bien
marché que l'existence de cette personne est attestée par certains.
Notamment, sur la page:

http://www.esec-barcelinhos.rcts.pt/projec/quimic/quif21.html

on lit (en portugais mais ça doit se comprendre facilement)

<<Origem do nome Litro

Talvez não saibas que o nome desta conhecida unidade de volume deriva
do nome de um cientista de apelido Litre.
 Claude Emile Jean-Baptiste Litre (1716-1778) nasceu em Margaux
(França) e foi um notável investigador, sendo de realçar os seus
trabalhos no domínio dos "pesos e medidas".
 Era um homem rico, dono de uma fábrica de material volumétrico para
laboratório, usado por químicos famosos como Lavoisier, Priestley
Celsius e outros.
 O químico Antoine de Fourcroy (1755-1809) parece ter sido o primeiro
a sugerir o nome de Litre para a unidade de volume.
 Na passagem do aniversário da morte de Litre, em 1978,a Comissão
Geral de Pesos e Medidas decidiu utilizar o nome deste cientista para o dm3
e adoptar o símbolo L, de acordo com a doutrina de que os símbolos das
unidades cujo nome deriva de pessoas devem ser escritos com letra
maiúscula.>>

ce qui tend à "prouver" que la majuscule est le seul symbole valable.
Ahurissant!

On trouve en revanche sur la page:

<http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infoipa/Gazette/1995/Gazette,%20May%2017
,%201995/Ken%20Woolner%20reminisces%20and%20retires>

l'explication de l'origine de JB Litre, né dans une chambre d'hôtel
en... 1977:

<<He remembers with glee one scientific hoax he helped
perpetrate. He and chemistry professor Reg Friesen are
"responsible for adding one person to the grand sweep of
history" - Claude ?mile Jean-Baptiste Litre.
     Litre was "born" during a crippling blizzard in a
hotel room in Ottawa, in December 1977. But his creators
told the world he had been born February 12, 1716 in
France. Litre even had a list of scientific accomplishments
that Woolner created. For ten years, much of the world be
lieved it all.
     The idea for Litre was Friesen's, Woolner says. It
originated with a technical quibble: Some chemists wanted
to make the abbreviation of the litre measurement to be "L"
instead of "l", to avoid confusion with the figure 1. "But
the rules of nomenclature of the Conf?rence G?n?rale des
Poids et Mesures require that upper-case letters be
reserved for units which are named for individual
scientists," Woolner says. "Since no such person existed
for the litre measurement, it seemed reasonable one should
be invented."
     Woolner wrote a study of LItre for the April 1978
issue of Chem 13 News, a science publication from Waterloo
geared mainly for high school teachers.
     "I realized that drama, revolution and romance were
all very good, but the joke would be better if the article
came across as a piece of sober historical research,"
Woolner wrote ten years later. "The idea was to give a
straightforward account with correct dates and accurate
historical details, but with one person added to the great
stream of history. So that's how I wrote it."
     And over the years other scientists filled in missing
sections to Litre's biography. "It was clear that a great
deal of innocent pleasure was being had by one and all,"
Woolner says.
     Information about Litre started appearing in
international publications, and even made the CBC radio
program "Quirks and Quarks" Eventually the deception had to
be put to rest.>>


fred92 fred92 écrit :

> Bonjour,
> 
> J'ai une question bête mais il n'y a pas de FAQ sur la liste... Je
> suis prof de physique et nous avons une polémique avec mes collègues
> sur le litre. Faut il un L majuscule ou un l qui est plus sensé, vu
> qu'il n'y a pas eu de Monsieur Litre. La raison serait, d'après eux,
> un risque de confusion... mais ils ne savent pas me dire avec quoi.
> 
> Merci de votre aide,
> 
> Frédéric
>