This is heavy: The kilogram is getting an update
Source: Associated Press
This is heavy: The kilogram is getting an update
By JOHN LEICESTER
an hour ago
SEVRES, France (AP) — The kilogram is getting an update.
No, your bathroom scales won’t suddenly become kinder and a kilo of fruit will still weigh a kilo. But the way scientists define the exact mass of a kilogram is about to change.
Until now, its mass has been defined by the granddaddy of all kilos: a golf ball-sized metal cylinder locked in a vault in France. For more than a century, it has been the one true kilogram upon which all others were based.
No longer.
Gathering in Versailles, west of Paris, governments are expected on Friday to approve plans to instead use a scientific formulation to define the exact mass of a kilo. The change is expected to have practical applications in industries and sciences that require ultra-precise measurements of mass.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/e0ac7c33674445aca44ca1a3aa9ee38b
= new reply since forum marked as read
Yes, nearly anyone who works in science, medicine, engineering, finds this obsession with the imperial system inexplicable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibble_balance
Another contender was a precisely machined silicon crystal, a calculated number of silicon-28 isotope, but that was just a finer variation of the original platinum-iridium cylinder standard.