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Dram (unit)

Encyclopedia : D : DR : DRA : Dram (unit)

Also see the article : Greek drachma.

The dram (American spelling) or drachm (British spelling) was historically both a coin and a weight.

Currently drachm or dram is both

a small mass in the system of weights avoirdupois and
a small unit of volume. This unit is called more correctly fluid dram or in contraction also fluidram.

Drachm (mass)

Ancient masses

The Roman drachm was a weight of 1/96 Roman pounds, which is about 3.41 grams.
The Greek drachm was a weight of 1/100 Greek mine, which is about 4.37 grams.

Greek and Roman drachm were related by the ratio 25 : 32.

Anglo-saxon masses

The dram is the mass of 1/256 pound avoirdupois and 1/16 ounce. So the dram weights 875 / 32 grains.

7 x 64.80000 / 256 = 1.771 875 000 000 0 gram : This is the conventional, however not the official value of the mass called dram.
7 x 64.79891 / 256 = 1.771 845 195 312 5 gram : This is the legal value, exactly one 99.9983179012345679 % of the value above.

Drachm (volume)

The fluid dram is defined as 1/8 of a fluid ounce, which means it is exactly equal to

3.696 691 195 312 5 mL in the U.S. and
3.551 632 812 500 0 mL in most other Anglo-Saxon countries.

Dram is also used informally to mean a small amount of liquid, especially Scotch whisky.

See also

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