The kilogram is the mass of 1000 cubic centimeters of absolutely pure water. Does that help you?
“The kilogram is the mass of 1000 cubic centimeters of absolutely pure water.”
At what pressure and temperature?
Ahh but it isn’t. The old 1 cc = 1 ml = 1 gram isn’t quite true, it’s very close, but 1 cc of water is actually .999265 grams. Which is apparently why they use this cylinder.
I just think it’s really funny because whenever people are giving America crap for not switching to metric they always complain that the English system is arbitrary, but as this cylinder proves the metric system is just as arbitrary. Which we already knew, all systems of measure are arbitrary, even when those arbitrary decisions make sense (like cc=ml=gram) they still arbitrarily picked water for the base, could have used blood or milk or any number of things.