Standards of weight and measurment

[tiny ogre]

A meter is defined as the length of a standard rod kept in a vault in Paris.

A kilogram is the mass of a standard weight kept in a vault in Paris.

A horsepower is the power of a standard horse kept in a vault in Paris.

Just thought you might find this informative.

[Zathras]

Who elected Paris for this important duty? I mean anyone could just invade and make off with these nationsal treasures! It's not like anyone's done this before, have they?


Hmmmmmm...

[Turtle]

I'm sure Carmen Sandiego has stolen all three at some point.

Actually, the standard length of a meter now based on the speed of light. I think the speed was 300,000 kilometers a second, so a meter would be 1/300,000,000ths of the distance light travels in a second.

[magic]

A horsepower is the power of a standard horse kept in a vault in Paris.

That horse is either very old or very dead, considering it's been a unit since the 1700's. Not much power there now, i guess.

[tiny ogre]

Actually, the standard length of a meter now based on the speed of light. I think the speed was 300,000 kilometers a second, so a meter would be 1/300,000,000ths of the distance light travels in a second.

I know, but it ruins the joke. Spoilsport

Who elected Paris for this important duty?

The metric system was invented in France. They set the standards before anyone else started using them.

[Brian]

I'm confused.

[Programmer]

I'm confused.

Ya, and does she really call it her "vault"?

[tiny ogre]

I'm confused.

Ya, and does she really call it her "vault"?

I thought vaults were hard to open

[Zinfan]

I'm confused.

Ya, and does she really call it her "vault"?

I thought vaults were hard to open

I believe they keep it under video surveillance

[AWS260]

The kilogram is no longer the mass of a standard weight kept in a vault in Paris.

The weight is finally over. Nearly 130 years after the kilogram was first defined by a lump of metal in a vault in Paris, scientists have voted for change and a new system that redefines the global measure of mass in terms of a fundamental constant of nature.

Following a historic vote on Friday at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, the kilogram will no longer be defined by the international prototype kilogram (IPK), a platinum alloy cylinder fashioned in 1889, but by Planck’s constant, a number that is deeply rooted in the quantum world.

[Unagi]

pfff… "in the quantum world"....

If there is anything I know about the quantum world... it doesn't care about our 'rules'.

[Holman]

Sunset Kilogram: "I am big! It's the [platinum-iridium] that got small!"

[Daehawk]

A kilogram is 100 micrograms right? and those are each 100 nanograms?

I was just reading up on long tons short tons and the metric ton aka the tonne.

[disarm]

A kilogram is 100 micrograms right? and those are each 100 nanograms?

I was just reading up on long tons short tons and the metric ton aka the tonne.

A kilogram is 1,000 grams, there are 1,000mcg in one milligram, and 1,000 nanograms in one microgram. That means that there are one billion nanograms in a single gram, and one kilogram is 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) nanograms.

[Daehawk]

Blues News says this....

I sent a text to my uncle at NIST congratulating him on the successful conclusion of the project to make the block of platinum and iridium walk the Planck and redefine the kilogram based on fundamental physical constants. This was appropriate since he's been working on this for more than 20 years (here is a letter he co-wrote on the topic back in the 20th century). I made a joke that he and his cohorts now need to start working on redefining a "jiffy," and his response cracked me up. "Don't joke," he replied. "Somebody in CA mounted a campaign to make 'hella' a unit." Now that's the kind of accessible science I think we can all get behind.