What is "specific gravity"

Gravity \Grav"i*ty\, n.; pl. Gravities. [L. gravitas, fr. gravis heavy; cf. F. gravit['e]. See Grave, a., Grief.]

1. The state of having weight; beaviness; as, the gravity of lead.

2. Sobriety of character or demeanor. ``Men of gravity and learning.''
   --Shak.

3. Importance, significance, dignity, etc; hence, seriousness; enormity; as, the gravity of an offense.

   They derive an importance from . . . the gravity of the place where they were uttered.
   --Burke.

4. (Physics) The tendency of a mass of matter toward a center of attraction; esp., the tendency of a body toward the center of the earth; terrestrial gravitation.

5. (Mus.) Lowness of tone; -- opposed to acuteness.

   Center of gravity See under Center.

   Gravity battery, See Battery, n., 4.

   Specific gravity, the ratio of the weight of a body to the weight of an equal volume of some other body taken as the standard or unit. This standard is usually water for solids and liquids, and air for gases. Thus, 19, the specific gravity of gold, expresses the fact that, bulk for bulk, gold is nineteen times as heavy as water.

specific \spe*cif"ic\ (sp[-e]*s[i^]f"[i^]k), a. [F. sp['e]cifique, or NL. spesificus; L. species a particular sort or kind + facere to make. Cf. specify.]

1. Of or pertaining to a species; characterizing or constituting a species; possessing the peculiar property or properties of a thing which constitute its species, and distinguish it from other things; as, the specific form of an animal or a plant; the specific qualities of a drug; the specific distinction between virtue and vice.

   Specific difference is that primary attribute which distinguishes each species from one another.
   --I. Watts.

2. Specifying; definite, or making definite; limited; precise; discriminating; as, a specific statement.

3. (Med.) Exerting a peculiar influence over any part of the body; preventing or curing disease by a peculiar adaptation, and not on general principles; as, quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria. In fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of the science. --Coleridge. Specific character (Nat. Hist.), a characteristic or characteristics distinguishing one species from every other species of the same genus. Specific disease (Med.)

   1. A disease which produces a determinate definite effect upon the blood and tissues or upon some special tissue.

   2. A disease which is itself uniformly produced by a definite and peculiar poison or organism.

      Specific duty. (Com.) See under Duty.

      Specific gravity. (Physics) See under Gravity.

      Specific heat (Physics), the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of a body one degree, taking as the unit of measure the quantity required to raise the same weight of water from zero to one degree; thus, the specific heat of mercury is 0.033, that of water being 1.000.

      Specific inductive capacity (Physics), the effect of a dielectric body in producing static electric induction as compared with that of some other body or bodies referred to as a standard.

      Specific legacy (Law), a bequest of a particular thing, as of a particular animal or piece of furniture, specified and distinguished from all others.
      --Wharton.
      --Burrill.

      Specific name (Nat. Hist.), the name which, appended to the name of the genus, constitutes the distinctive name of the species; -- originally applied by Linn[ae]us to the essential character of the species, or the essential difference. The present specific name he at first called the trivial name.

      Specific performance (Law), the peformance of a contract or agreement as decreed by a court of equity.

n. (context physics English) The ratio of the mass of a substance to that of an equal volume of water at 4°C (or to some other reference substance)

n. the density of a substance relative to the density of water

Specific Gravity is a live album by multi-instrumentalists Joe McPhee and Joe Giardullo recorded in 1997 and first released on the Boxholder label.

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''This page is about the measurement using water as a reference. For a general use of specific gravity, see relative density. See intensive property for the property implied by "specific".

Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance; equivalently, it is the ratio of the mass of a substance to the mass of a reference substance for the same given volume. Apparent specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a volume of the substance to the weight of an equal volume of the reference substance. The reference substance is nearly always water at its densest (4°C) for liquids; for gases it is air at room temperature (21°C). Nonetheless, the temperature and pressure must be specified for both the sample and the reference. Pressure is nearly always 1 atm (101.325 kPa). Temperatures for both sample and reference vary from industry to industry. In British beer brewing, the practice for specific gravity as specified above is to multiply it by 1000. Specific gravity is commonly used in industry as a simple means of obtaining information about the concentration of solutions of various materials such as brines, hydrocarbons, sugar solutions (syrups, juices, honeys, brewers wort, must etc.) and acids.