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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: 3, Funny) by khallow on Saturday November 17 2018, @03:52PM (2 children)
Not when it is set to exactly 6.62607015×10^-34 kg⋅m^2/s.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:35AM (1 child)
uhm ... but you just used "kg" to define plank constant?
it's the strangest think in the world:
some cave dwellers come to the insight that understanding the world together requires to agree on a arbitrary measuring unit and the go about measuring shit and recording the results in this unit.
later on laws are discovered that yield a constant. then the constant becomes the new foundation and the arbitrary "cave man" unit goes out the window.
so in way this is good, you can send plans of a device to aliens and it can tell them kg. bad because someone cannot just make an appointment and copy "cave man" kg anymore via bar-scale but needs to pay and build a complicated setup ...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday November 18 2018, @01:18PM
No, "I used it" to define "kg⋅m^2/s" which is a different thing. Combined with definitions for the speed of light and a second and you can pull out the kilogram.