erg

The unit of work in the centimeter-gram-second absolute system of units, 1 erg being the work done by a force of 1 dyne acting through a distance of 1 centimeter, = 10⁻⁷ joules. Symbol, erg.

A million ergs was sometimes termed a megalerg.

The name was first proposed by a committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.¹ It is based on the classical Greek word ergon (εργον), meaning work.

According to the current national standard in the United States², the erg is not to be used. The joule should be used instead. Nevertheless, in the 21st century the erg continued to be used in certain fields (see source note 1).

1. British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Reports of the Committee on Electrical Standards appointed by the British Association....
London: E. and F. N. Spon, 1873.

2. IEEE/ASTM SI10-02.
American National Standard for Use of the International System of Units (SI): The Modern Metric System.
New York: IEEE, 30 December 2002.

See Section 3.3.3.

sources

Flux (10⁻¹⁸ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹ Å⁻¹)

Legend for vertical axis of figure 1a, in
M. D. Lehnert, N. P. H. Nesvadba, J.-G. Cuby, A. M. Swinbank, S. Morris, B. Clément, C. J. Evans, M. N. Bremer and S. Basa.
Spectroscopic confirmation of a galaxy at redshift z ≈ 8.6.
Nature, vol 467, pages 940-942 (20 October 2010). Letter.
doi:10.1038/nature09462