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From PBS:
The kilogram — anywhere in the world, for any purpose — is based on the exact weight of a golf-ball-sized chunk of platinum and iridium stored under three glass bell jars in a vault in an ornate building outside of Paris. Accessing the vault requires three people with three separate keys and the oversight of the Bureau Internationale des Poids et Mesures, the international organization that oversees the International System of Units.
Despite all of this security, in the 129 years since the International Prototype of the Kilogram was forged, polished and sanctioned as an artifact of measurement, it seems to have lost a tiny amount of material.
[...] On Friday, metrologists — people who study the science of measurements — and representatives from 57 nations will gather in a conference room in Versailles, France to redefine the kilogram. In other words: the way we weigh the world is about to change.
Also at Smithsonian, New Atlas, and Nature.
Related: International Prototype of the Kilogram Soon to Become Obsolete
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Saturday November 17 2018, @08:49AM (9 children)
Call it whatever you want, measure it however you want, there are two systems of measurement easily available. One of them got us to the moon and the other is metric, some fancy ass ceremony wont change that, unless of course they rename the gram the moonlander.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @09:02AM (1 child)
One of them got US to the moon and the other got everyone else to Moon and Mars
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @02:38PM
So why is it then that the ones who got to the Moon are the only ones who can land on Mars?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @10:37AM
One got you to the moon and very nearly screwed everything up to hell and gone.
Try again.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 17 2018, @02:58PM (2 children)
We got to the moon in spite of the crappy, antiquated, confusing mess of a measurement system, you mean.
At least one Mars mission failed thanks to confusion between measurement systems.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday November 17 2018, @04:47PM (1 child)
It's also worth noting that when true precision is desired using inches as a foundation, the preferred fractional unit is the thousandth of an inch -- a base ten value.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @04:37AM
And because it's not confusing enough, I give you the following from Wikipedia, emphasis mine:
That's right, the common verbal shorthand for the millimetre is also used, in north america, as a verbal shorthand for a thousandth of an inch.
/headdesk.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:54AM
" One of them got us to the moon and the other is metric"
Fuckin' BOO-YAH.
(Score: 1) by DrXenos on Sunday November 18 2018, @02:58AM
You're a fucking idiot.
(Score: 1) by zzarko on Sunday November 18 2018, @09:36PM
I'm sorry to bust your bubble, but metric got you to the moon:
https://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html [doneyles.com]
"Inside the computer we used metric units, at least in the case of powered-flight navigation and guidance. At the operational level NASA, and especially the astronauts, preferred English units. This meant that before being displayed, altitude and altitude-rate (for example) were calculated from the metric state vector maintained by navigation, and then were converted to feet and ft/sec."
C64 BASIC: 1 a=rnd(-52028):fori=1to8:a=rnd(1):next:fori=1to5:?chr$(rnd(1)*26+65);:next