International Prototype Kilogram
Of possible interest to your list, ping.
Posted on 03/28/2015 1:24:25 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The German Nation Metrology Institute (PTB) in Braunschweig has set itself the enormous task of finding a new formula for measuring a kilogram.
The weight is currently based on a metal cylinder called the International Prototype Kilogram that is kept in a safe in Paris.
The problem is that the precious object is—very gradually—losing weight, according to scientists. […]
A race is now underway between scientists around the world to find a way of defining an unchangeable kilogram without relying on a lump of metal, which is unsurprisingly rather complicated.
Researchers at the PTB in Braunschweig claim to be very close to a solution. They are developing the world’s roundest and smoothest sphere. …
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...
They also manage to conflate speed (a scalar) and velocity (a vector), energy and power, and on and on....
I wish the scientists all the best luck in their quest for the unchanging kilo. An esoteric problem if ever there was one.
They tried a kilo of coke....but it lost weight even faster....
*rimshot*
Using the metric system, one hundred kilograms should equal the largest unit of measurement we have, the Rosie O’Donnell. Just use that as the standard.
I can see how that will be a difficult task!
I wonder if they have Mr. Mxyzptlk’s phone number.
The US should propose to use the Cankle in leiu of the gram.
I wonder if the writer had a clue, about anything.
Reminds me of:
“I used to have a DeLorean, but the damned thing wouldn’t stay in the lane. It kept driving down the middle of the road trying to snort the white line”
“A pint’s a pound, the world around.” There, problem solved.
Equator or one of the poles? Mountain or sea level?
I hope that the NEW kilogram will drop the sexism, racism, and bigotry of the current kilogram which is a product of dead white European males. It is way beyond time to fundamentally transform the kilogram.
It’s been many years since school but I thought a gram was the weight of 1 cc of H2O at 72°F.
I’ve always called a roundd flat sphere a disk.
Yup. And 0ne liter of water is one kilogram at Standard Temperature and Pressure.
Thus and such many atoms of thus and such an isotope — one of the easiest things in principle if not in practice. There has to be more to the story than this.
Of possible interest to your list, ping.
Flat? The word was “smooth.” A ball.
That is one way of counting atoms; another way would be to create a cylinder. What makes a disc disc-y? A certain proportion between its dimensions?
For silicon, a particular isotope would be needed in order to pin down the precision satisfactorily.
I’ve often wondered that if the space inside atoms was expanding, how would we ever know, since everything would be expanding at the same rate.
They called the sphere smooth at the beginning of the article and flat at the end of it. A centrifuge was used to separate isotopes, so the sphere would be exceptionally pure.
http://www.nist.gov/pml/si-redef/kg_new_silicon.cfm
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