Physics. Also ergon. [ad. Gr. ἔργ-ον work.]
1. The unit of work, according to the centimetre-gramme-second system; i.e., the quantity of work done by a force which, acting for one second upon a mass of one gramme produces a velocity of one centimetre per second.
1873. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 224. We propose to denote it [the C. G. S. unit of work] by some derivative of the Greek ἔργον. The forms ergon, ergal and erg have been suggested…. We propose, for the present, to leave the termination unsettled; and we request that the word ergon or erg be strictly limited to the C. G. S. unit of work, or what is for purposes of measurement, equivalent to this the C. G. S. unit of energy.
1874. Maxwell, in Life (1882), 632. Your sum of Vital energy Is not the millionth of an erg.
1875. Garnett, Elem. Dynamics (1889), § 63. The C. G. S. unit of work is that done by a dyne in working through a centimetre and is called an erg.
2. Comb. as erg-nine, erg-ten, the product of an erg multiplied respectively by 109 and 1010.
1873. Brit. Assoc. Rep., 224. One horse-power is equal to three quarters of an erg-ten per second. More nearly, it is 7·46 erg-nines per second.
