The international kilogram conundrum[Weights have mysteriously fluctuated]

LA Times ^ | 17 Apr 2008 | Jia-Rui Chong

[Bellflower]

ID concerns how life began, not how it diversified.

The intelligent (extremely beyond comprehension) designer designed kinds and "micro-evolution" or ability for adaptation and variations among the kinds. It is all in the the original design and has every thing to do with variations among kinds. That explains your question about evolution. Life diversifies because the ability through genetic information was at the beginning implanted in the genes of the original life The Creator created. It may be hard to accept and understand unless you can begin to conceive of how extremely and perfectly intelligent The Creator is. He knows the end from the beginning and everything in between.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

OK, so how is that different than what I posted? Essentially God starting the process, and using the process of evolution to create diversity of life?

[bvw]

Since mass is measured by weight, it is the same thing to speak of. Who knows? Maybe some brownian motion in the space-time of big G.

Or maybe related to minute isotope and nuclides within an isoptope mix differences between the bars.

[cynwoody]

(Nobody really knows what the "international foot" is good for)

Easier calculation, I suppose. A US survey mile is about an eighth of an inch longer than an international mile.

[Bellflower]

Yes, but not evolution that changes one kind into another. The variations and changes do not cause creatures to evolve through the gaining of genetic information into other species. Perhaps specialized, subspecies that have lost information within their genetic pool but not gained it to become some other kind. Actually, I even go farther than ID creationist. I believe that The Creator is also involved with the process to the extent that for pronounced changes within a species they are managed by Him, though the potential for the change was already there within the genetic code from the beginning. The miracle of adaptation and diversity often seems to be too tremendous to have been left to randomness even considering the genetic information is already within the species from the beginning. That is why I have come to believe that The Creator not only started the process but is unbeknown to us managing it, explaining the quantum leaps of change that occur even within species. Creatures often change dramatically as needed. It all seems too orchestrated to me unless He is involved in the process. Our Creator loves expressing His creativity. He loves life and great expressions of His creativity. That is also why He allows so many variations, simply as an expression of His tremendous greatness.

[Right Wing Assault]

Most people use mass interchangeably, so the writer probably did the same.

Here's a good article I found:

http://www.bipm.org/en/scientific/mass/faqs2_mass.html

[Dust in the Wind]

1 grain = 64.79891 milligrams

[Dust in the Wind]

My grandfather used to say “A pint is a pound the world round.”, it seems to be a fair estimate of most commodities.

[arderkrag]

The distance between the point of the index finger and the elbow was never meaningful to me before.

[SoothingDave]

Amidst all the bickering, I see no one has mentioned the underlying problem. How do you measure the standard and what do you use to calibrate the device doing the measuring?

[ko_kyi]

“Next thing you know the UN folks will want us to change to a ten hour day with 100 decihours, with 1000 millihours.”

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decabet

[freedomlover]

Remember the SNL skit re the 100 hour metric day?

[HamiltonJay]

This isn’t a fluctuation in weight... its a fluctuation in mass which results in a fluctuation in weight.

Why isn’t a KG a unit of measure based on a volume of water? This would be universal, instead they went the other way and said a 1000g of water = 1 KG or 1gram = 1 millileter

If they had decided on a universal volume container, and declared that much of a purified liquid is 1 KG they wouldn’t be having this problem.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Fluctuation in mass resulting in fluctuation in weight...hence my assertion that there are nefarious local disturbances in the universal gravitation constant.

[HamiltonJay]

About every 50 years, the national prototypes are returned to the headquarters of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, France, to be compared with the International Prototype. During the first major comparison about 1950, scientists noticed discrepancies between the average masses of Le Grand K and its copies. They were concerned but could not discern a trend.

No, you didn't read the whole article... the presumption of gravitational constants being to blame are not true.. Every 50 years these things are sent back to france and compared with the original at the same spot on the globe.

If it were gravitational constant fluctuation they would weigh the same at the same point on the globe at the same time... There is a MASS differential that is occurring.

Saying it weighs X in switzerland and .9987X in australia would support your claim. Saying one weighs X in France at 9am today, and the other on the opposite side of the scale 6 inches away at 9am today weighs .9987x is not due to fluctuations in the gravitational constant... its due to something affecting the masses of these objects over time, and different rates.

[BGHater]

duh. Duck Scale. Works on Witches.

[Chaguito]

Degassing even purified water sample uniformly from site to site would be next to impossible. Also volume is exceedingly difficult to measure accurately and changes rather strongly with temperature. Mass (as weight) doesn’t.

[HamiltonJay]

Yes, degassing is difficult, but required. You aren’t talking that everyone is measuring by this.. its the BASE unit you are basing everything else from.. this reference unit is not something used daily.

You deal with the temperature issue by simply adding the requirements of temperature by simply requiring the measurment to be at a certain temperature.

Volume of a known universal liquid should have been the basis of the unit in the first place.

[muawiyah]

It’s very meaningful to the folks who design toilets.

[SoothingDave]

Fluctuation in mass resulting in fluctuation in weight...hence my assertion that there are nefarious local disturbances in the universal gravitation constant.

Except they are measuring them all in the same place. And they aren't measuring "weight" by gravitational means at all.