Question

In the CGS system, the gram is the unit of mass. State true or false.

Answer 1

In earlier days, science scholars were using the CGS system. In this system, the fundamental units are centimeters, grams, and second. Hence this system is named CGS. But later it is more inconvenient for measurement. Many lengthy and more mass objects are inconvenient to measure in centimeters and grams. Hence later this CGS system is replaced by the MKS system. MKS defines meter, kilogram, and second.

Complete step by step solution:
(i) In 1832, the CGS system was proposed by the German mathematician Gauss. Later in 1873, this system was adopted by the British association. But in the 20th-century scientists felt that this system is inconvenient for many practical purposes.
(ii) Hence many of the CGS system units were replaced by the MKS units. This replaced the two fundamental units of CGS, centimetre, and gram with the meter and gram for length and the mass respectively. This MKS system was later accepted as the International units to measure and this is now called SI units.
(iii) From the above points, gram is the unit of mass in the CGS system that can be understood.

Hence it is “True” that gram is the unit of mass in CGS system.

Additional Information:
(i) CGS units are still prevalent in many fields such as material science, electrodynamics, and astronomy as it is very comfortable to measure in CGS units.
(ii) In the SI system, the unit of mass is kilogram which is ${10^3}$ times bigger than a gram.

Note:
In SI units have many advantages over the CGS units. SI system has seven basic units. It is more rational than it gives one unit to one quantity. For example, energy is denoted only in the unit called ‘Joule’. In any language, the SI units are the same and it is not subject to change. It is more coherent and modernized.