The hoax was mistakenly printed as fact in the IUPAC journal Chemistry International and subsequently retracted. The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology now recommends the use of the uppercase letter L, a practice that is also widely followed in Canada and Australia. Despite being a hoax, the character of Claude Litre has had a lasting impact on the way litres are denoted in scientific literature.
Key takeaways:
- Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste Litre is a fictional character created by Kenneth Woolner in 1978 to justify the use of a capital L to denote litres.
- The International System of Units usually only permits the use of a capital letter when a unit is named after a person.
- The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology now recommends the use of the uppercase letter L, a practice that is also widely followed in Canada and Australia.
- The character of Claude Litre was part of an April Fools' Day hoax in the April 1978 issue of 'CHEM 13 News'.