obtaining values from stylesheet

obtaining values from stylesheet

I don't know if this is the right way to do it but it's the way I have been doing it: create an element and use the css method.  I don't know if there's a way to obtain the values from the stylesheet directly?

Anyway, I'm trying to obtain the font-size variable in here:

  1.       #contents {
  2.         font-size:130%;
  3.       }
with the following:
  1. cBaseSz = ($("body").append(t = $("<span id=\"Contents\">"))).css("fontSize");
  2.   t.remove();

However this returns the value in pixels ("px" at the end), and I want the literal value specified in the stylesheet.  What to do...?