On November 16, 2018, at a session of the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, France, representatives of countries from around the world voted to finally re-define the metric system that has not been changed since 1983. It was a big day not only for metrologists but for all of us. 60 unanimous votes made a decision that will probably change global trade and technology forever. There will no longer be physical objects in the SI system.
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CC0 image, Pixabay, author: angelorosa, adapted by me
Up until now, kilogram has been based on a platinum-iridium cylinder stored in France. Basically, the weight of that specific cylinder has been defined as the weight of one kilogram and all the scales and measurements have been calibrated in a way that the weight the same as the weight of that cylinder is one kilogram. The International Prototype Kilogram (Le Grand K) will still be monitored and studied but it will no longer have former scientific significance besides the historical one. From May 2019, the kilogram will be defined in terms of Planck’s constant, a number that relates a radio wave’s energy to its frequency.
Science needs to be understandable in all corners of the Earth. It needs to be standardized when it comes to units because you can not have something measured in one thing in one country and in another thing in a different country. You can when it comes to daily life but not when it comes to science.
Système international
That is why we have the International System of Units or SI (SI is abbreviated from the French Système international). It is built on seven base units, which are ampere, Kelvin, second, meter, kilogram, candela, mole, and a set of twenty prefixes to the unit names and unit symbols. The SI base units are the building blocks from which all the other units are derived. Maxwell first introduced the concept of a coherent system with three quantities as base units: mass, length and time, Giorgi later identified the need for an electrical base unit, and another three base units (temperature, amount of substance and luminous intensity) were added later. The derived units in the SI are formed by powers, products or quotients of the base units and are unlimited in number. When it comes to prefixes, there are twenty of them for the International System of Units, from yocto as the smallest to the yotta as the largest or from ten to the power of -24 to ten to the power of +24.
The big decision was made at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Versailles, France, which was organized by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM). All SI units will now be defined in terms of constants that describe the natural world. Physical objects will no longer define measurement units.
"Using the fundamental constants we observe in nature as a foundation for important concepts such as mass and time means that we have a stable foundation from which to advance our scientific understanding, develop new technologies and address some of society’s greatest challenges"
- Martin Milton, director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
The size of these units will not change...
Before you start fantasizing how you will bench press 100 kilograms or buy more bananas for the same price, let me stop you right there and burst your delusional happy bubble. A kilogram will still be a kilogram, it will just be defined differently. The new definition will allow more accurate measuring of weight below one kilogram. The kilogram itself will be defined in terms of the Planck constant, guaranteeing long-term stability of the SI mass scale. It. The unit of mass will be defined through the electrical force needed to counteract the weight of a kilogram on a machine called a Kibble balance. That electric force is linked to the Planck constant through quantum electric effects. After May 20, 2019, the Planck constant will be fixed at exactly 6.62607015 × 10−34 kilograms times meters squared per second. The value of the Planck constant will ensure that there will be no change in the SI kilogram at the time of redefinition.
4 new definitions:
- The kilogram by the Planck constant (h)
- The ampere by the elementary electrical charge (e)
- The Kelvin by the Boltzmann constant (k)
- The mole by the Avogadro constant (NA)
Science will no longer be limited by objects in the measurement of the world. We will have universality accessible units that will ensure even greater accuracy and accelerate scientific advancement. Just as the redefinition of the second in 1967 provided the basis for technology that has transformed our communications through GPS and the internet, these new changes will have a wide-reaching impact in science and technology. A cylinder of metal known as the International Prototype of the Kilogram, the last remaining physical artifact in the SI system will from next year become nothing more than a piece of history.
To celebrate the beginning of a new era in science, three scientists who had measured the Planck constant using a Kibble balance (Stephan Schlamminger, Jon Pratt, and David Newell) had the Planck constant tattooed on their arms. Along with the constant, they also added "A tous les temps, à tous les peuples" — for all times and for all people since that is what they see the new kilogram will from now on be.
To read more about this topic, check out these REFERENCES:
Kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole redefined from sciencedaily.com
The weight is over: kilogram redefined at 'emotional' conference from theguardian.com
International System of Units from wikipedia
It’s official: We’re redefining the kilogram from sciencenews.org
The International System of Units (SI)
Information for users about the proposed revision of the SI
On the revision of the SI
Kilogram Redefined. The Metric System Overhaul Is Complete from wired.com
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- all images used in this post are free for commercial use, they are royalty free with the links to original images provided under them
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- title pictures are made by me using the CC0 images from pixabay that can be found here
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Only in Track and Field and road races do we Americans use Meters and Kilometers. Yards and Miles is the preference we use in length :) Not many people in the World talk about breaking the 4 minute 1609.34 meter barrier. It's breaking the 4 minute mile barrier. Personally the whole World should refer to length as Miles ,it just makes sense imho :P
yes, yes, it makes total sense that the whole world should change and not just one country lol :D And as for the record, no one talks about breaking the mile barrier because the official results are in meters, The Olympics are in meters ;)
It's a pretty big step, leaving the physical 'standards' behind.
It's only been just a bit over a hundred years since Henry Ford did his part to standardize measurements. I think it's was a more significant accomplishment than his implementation of the 'assembly line', but that's another story for another time.
I'd read about the conference and the changes implemented, but not in the straightforward way that you presented them. Thanks Petra.
It is a big step and the one that was long awaited :) Thank you for your lovely comment honey, it is always a pleasure to see you 💚
That's great news! Finally moving to some decent and universal references... Now to persuade the Americans to change to the superior system!
Hahaha, well, when it comes to scientists and educational institutions, Americans are using the SI system too. They have to :)
Not always, and this may lead to some crash of super expensive space device sent to Mars... (one of the component was using the SI and another one the US system :p)
I am sure you can google this (I can't as in China at the moment :p )
I will most definitely google that :D I am curious was it because of a human error and SI was mandatory or was SI really not mandatory in which case the project was bound to fail from the beginning but that seems really unbelievable that no one checked what they were doing. Googling it is...
Have a great time in China, hope you will return to "open" internet soon ;)
I will go back to the open world on Sunday (Japan :p).
Ha ha, you beat me to this answer!
I know, but I can't resist kicking the horse!
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It was cool to read this science update! I loved the use of humour in your post, @zen-art – it made the text fun to read!
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