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For decades, metrologists have strived to retire ‘Le Grand K’ — the platinum and iridium cylinder that for 126 years has defined the kilogram from a high-security vault outside Paris. Now it looks as if they at last have the data needed to replace the cylinder with a definition based on mathematical constants.
The breakthrough comes in time for the kilogram to be included in a broader redefinition of units — including the ampere, mole and kelvin — scheduled for 2018. And this week, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) will meet in Paris to thrash out the next steps.
“It is an exciting time,” says David Newell, a physicist at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. “It is the culmination of intense, prolonged efforts worldwide.”
[...] In 2011, the CIPM formally agreed to express the kilogram in terms of Planck’s constant, which relates a particle’s energy to its frequency, and, through E = mc2, to its mass. This means first setting the Planck value using experiments based on the current reference kilogram, and then using that value to define the kilogram. The CIPM’s committee on mass recommends that three independent measurements of Planck’s constant agree, and that two of them use different methods.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday October 16 2015, @02:45AM
Dividing something in half is rather easier to eyeball than into 10 as well.
Imagine trying to cut a yardstick/meterstick into 10 equal pieces without using the markings. First you cut it in half...then...hmm...you have to figure out a good way to eyeball cutting it into equal fifths.
(but of course a yardstick is a multiple of 3 so that doesn't work either...except foot is 12 which is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6 so you can do some juggling)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"