Posted on 09/12/2007 2:47:48 PM PDT by decimon
Selective Entropy.
No.
Global warming? Bush’s fault? It’s getting older and shrinking?
Take your pick.
On second thought, that would be about 8 billion per second - stand back!
Have Gun, Will Travel
Wire Palladium, San Francisco
As in, “Why are women such poor judges of distance?” “Because they are constantly being told that this < holding hands 6” apart > is eight inches.”
What happens if you join a new squadron where someone already has your call sign?
Incidentally, my Dad's was "Pretty Lights", earned on a P-51 sortie over Norway in 1944. He noticed some twinkling lights at the rim of the fjord they were flying up, and blurted out "What are those pretty lights up there?" over the radio. The squadron leader immediately veered into a turn, knowing it was flak aimed straight at them. I don't know if his sharp eyes made up for breaking radio silence, but that became his name in the squadron (No. 19, RAF).
-ccm
I believe that they are comparing it to other secondary standards, on both sides of the same precision balance beam. The relative weights have changed, and apparently the “primary” standard has drifted away from all the copies, which makes absolutely no sense. Entropy has absolutely nothing to do with it, there isn’t that much entropy in the universe. (At least in the sense of uncontrollable random variations. Procedural errors cannot be rules out.)
See post 70 first.
When they stopped pulling it out all the time, or standardized handling procedure, I have no idea.
If they had done the right thing and stayed with pounds and ounces, they would not be having this problem now.
Great point, oh Great One! The primary problem with the metric system (aside from its French origins) is that it has no purely human referent. A foot...well, MY foot, for example, is exactly one foot long. An inch is the width of a thumb...and MY thumb is exactly one inch across. Horses are measured in “hands” of four inches - and mirabile dictu, MY hand is four inches! When it comes to measurements I guess I’m just lucky! :-) Now, the human variation in appendages would not make any individual the benchmark for science...but if I want to move something an inch, a foot, a yard, I can get there with a quick approximation using my body as a tool. Using the metric system, there is NO human relationship to ANY unit of measure; it is UNnatural, inhuman, arbitrary, and unrelated to our everyday knowledge and experience. So just chalk metrics up to the insanity of our Froggish brethren (and cistren) - I’ll keep my old-fashioned and ever-handy inches, thankyewveddymuch! :-)
Next to Bush’s Weather Machine, he has a Mess-With-The-French Machine.
I like that machine the best.
Gadzooks, nice to know my devout followers... 
know the proper form of address!
Now, as to your luckiness, True... 
I, on the other hand, have the perfect measurement for 8 inches.
Oh... 
My... God!
What! What? Ya'll... 
never heard of a socket wrench?
Ah, I think I see...too much energy required to diffuse that amount of weight from this non-organic structure? Is that approaching the ballpark?
New Disney film coming out: “Honey, I shrunk the kilogram!”
Looking for a socket wench? :-)
I do appreciate it, thanks.
So use the weight that was originally recorded 118 years ago and be done with it. Any minute change now doesn’t matter now unless you’re a lunatic. Jeez, worse than the stock market guys!
It also might be related to the moving of the magnetic north. If the poles are moving so is the earth’s liquid core, and local gravity has also changed.
It could also be dissolved gases in the metal.
Too many things could cause it. It will take a bunch of researchers several years to determine the cause.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.