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unit

1

A unit indicating the height of the front panel of rack-mounted electronic equipment. See rack.

2

In the United Kingdom, one serving of an alcoholic beverage, containing 10 milliliters (or 8 grams) of ethyl alcohol.

3

In the southern United States, a unit of volume used for pulpwood, a stack 8 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 4 feet high, so 160 cubic feet.

American Pulp and Paper Association.
Dictionary of Paper. 3rd edition.

4

In Australia, 20ᵗʰ century, a unit expressing the amount of a desired substance in a quantity of ore. One unit of a desired substance is the concentration of the substance in the ore in per cent, times 100, times the number of long tons of ore. Each unit is thus 22.4 pounds of the substance.¹

For example, 30 tons of ore assaying 10% tin would contain 300 units of tin. A seller might offer a quantity of ore containing 100 units of tin, 70 units of zinc, 50 units of copper, 20 units of antimony and 10 units of arsenic. Were all these metals extracted from a ton of this ore, it would yield (22.4 × 100) 2,240 pounds of tin, 1,568 pounds of zinc, 1,120 pounds of copper, 448 pounds of antimony and 224 pounds of arsenic.

For some ores, the unit is based on assays of compounds, not the pure metal. See the table below.

Type of Ore	Basis of unit
ores containing tin, lead, zinc, copper, antimony, arsenic	the pure metal
ores of tungsten (scheelite)	tungstic acid (WO₃)
ores of molybdenum	molybdenum sulphide (MoS₂)
ores of beryllium (e.g., beryl)	beryllium oxide (BeO)

1. Department of Mines, Queensland.
Queensland Mining Guide. 1949 Edition.
A. H. Tucker, Government Printer, Brisbane.

Page 97.

5

In North America, 2006 – present, in the design and testing of water flush toilets, a unit of flushable toilet load simulating human feces. One unit is a condom filled with 50 grams of miso paste. A toilet is expected to flush simultaneously 7 units on 4 out of 5 attempts; some flush 10. The test was devised by Veritec Consulting to replace flushing small plastic balls, which was insufficiently realistic.

Uniform North American Requirements for Toilet Fixtures.

This publication can be accessed as a pdf file through a link at
http://www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/UNAR_-__Unified_North_American_Requirements_for_Toilet_Fixtures.aspx
Appendix A contains the definition of the test load: “Seven (7) test specimens at 50 ± 4g test specimen (‘test specimen’) consisting of soybean paste contained in latex casing, tied at each end forming a ‘sausage’ approximately 100 ± 13 mm in length and 25 ± 6mm in diameter and four loosely crumpled balls of toilet paper (‘paper’).” The latex casing is further qualified as “non-lubricated latex condoms (LifeStyles® brand).”

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan.
Toilet industry battles over testing standards.
The Wall Street Journal, 8 December 2005.

Popular Mechanics, August 2011, page 26. “The standard toilet-testing load—known as a unit.”