Slashdot Mirror
Exactly One Kilogram Of Silicon
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."
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!
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!
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.
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.
How do they keep the perfect sphere from rolling off the scale?