Kilo won't be a lump of metal

July 27, 2017 13:06

Away from politics, an interesting read...

Beneath a hill overlooking Paris, there is a vault. On the door of the vault there is a lock requiring three keys, only two of which are kept in France. Inside you will find the most important lump of metal in the world: the kilogram. Soon it will just be "a" kilogram.

The platinum-iridium cylinder that for 125 years has defined the mass of everything is to be retired. When it does, the half century-long modernisation of the world's measurements system will at last be completed but the basis of those measurements will also, for most people, be harder to understand. Rather than being linked to a lump of metal, the weight of everyone and everything on the planet will be linked to a number, the Planck constant.
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