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Exactly One Kilogram Of Silicon

Posted by timothy on from the objective-or-arbitrary dept.

Ed Pegg Jr writes "You may know of the importance of 299792458 for length, and 9192631770 for time. However, the official standard for weight is still a block of platinum/iridium made a hundred years ago. A group of scientists from the Avogadro Project are hoping to change that, though, by producing a perfect sphere of ultrapure silicon."

9 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. A perfect sphere? by ptaff · · Score: 5, Funny

    A perfect sphere would imply fractional quarks and fractional parts of quarks, and ... an infinite precision!

    Pi is still irrational, isn't it?

    Don't tell me the all my math teachers lied to me!

    1. Re:A perfect sphere? by sporty · · Score: 4, Funny
      A perfect sphere would imply fractional quarks and fractional parts of quarks, and ... an infinite precision!

      Pi is still irrational, isn't it?


      And worrying on the quark level might make you a little irrational too ;) There's always room for error...er.. jello.
      --

      -
      ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only

  2. Old news by L.+VeGas · · Score: 4, Funny

    producing a perfect sphere of ultrapure silicon

    Pam Anderson has already cornered this market.
    Ohhhh, silicon...

    --
    Best Windows Freeware
  3. Stick it to the French by An.+(Coward) · · Score: 5, Funny

    We'll come up with our own standard of mass, and we'll call it the Freedom Sphere. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Jacques Chirac! With your burned lips!

  4. BILLY! by teamhasnoi · · Score: 4, Funny
    How many times have I told you NOT to play with your perfect sphere of ultrapure silicon outside the house! It's the official standard of weight and here YOU are rolling it through a SANDBOX! No telling how many nanograms of mass you've abraded off of it!

    Get in here this INSTANT, and bring it with you! When your father gets home you are going to be grounded, young man! Two weeks to the PICOSECOND by the atomic clock in the kitchen. Now go stand in the corner, and NO LEANING! You'll probably throw the wall out of plumb, or expand the angle to 90.7632+1E degrees or something, you troublemaker!

  5. New Austin Powers movie plot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've always have this strange idea of a Austin Powers movie where DR EVIL has stolen the "Kilogram" and held the entire world hostage for one trillion pesos.

    What an idea.

  6. Re:why kilogram? by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 4, Funny
    There is a system based on fundamental constants, the Planck Units.

    Still, just try getting a .75 centipace wrench. You can't even order them, and without that, just how the hell are you supposed to repair the flux capacitor?

    --

    This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander

  7. Did anyone else think of... by AEton · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's the new, improved, Happy Fun Silicon Ball!
    Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Happy Fun Silicon Ball.
    Discontinue use of Happy Fun Silicon Ball if any of the following occurs:
    • Chipping
    • Scratching
    • Spontaneous degeneration
    • Conversion from matter to energy (E = mc^2 = c^2 energy!)
    • Sudden change in mass of everything around you
    Happy Fun Silicon Ball has been shipped to our troops in Kuwait and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq. Our Westernization process of SI imperialism will defeat them!
    When not in use, Happy Fun Silicon Ball should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration...
    Do not taunt Happy Fun Silicon Ball.

    Happy Fun Silicon Ball
    Accept no substitutes!
    --
    We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
  8. Re:Honest Question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How do they keep the perfect sphere from rolling off the scale?