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The Changing Definition Of 'Kilogram'
DrLudicrous writes "The NYTimes is reporting that the platinum-iridium standard mass for the kilogram is shedding at an appreciable rate -- at least compared to other reference masses. The Pt-Ir cylinder is kept in France, and measured annually, and the slight discrepancy is important because the kg is an SI base unit- thus other quantities such as the Volt are based on it. A new standard is being sought- the two frontrunners are counting the number of atoms in a perfectly spherical single crystal of silicon, and another technique uses a device known as the Watt balance."
to get around NY Times registration?
You're silly.
ASCII silly question, get a silly ANSI.
WTF? I call moderators on dope on this... 40% redundant? I couldn't care less about the karma, but find me a post that stated that the original poster should care about problems with the metric system even though he uses inches, feet, and yards because those units are defined in terms of metric units posted before mine.
I for one welcome our new SCOviet Russian overlords to whom all our base are belong.
Looked it up. (sigh)
"The first American dictionary was written by Noah Webster in 1828. At the time America was a relatively new country and Webster's particular contribution was to show that the region spoke a different dialect from Britain, and so he wrote a dictionary with many spellings differing from the standard. Many of these changes were initiated unilaterally by Webster.
Webster also argued for many "simplifications" to the idiomatic spelling of the period. Somewhat ironically, many, although not all, of his simplifications fell into common usage alongside the original versions, resulting in a situation even more confused than before.
Many words are shortened and differ from other versions of English. Words such as center are used instead of centre in other versions of English. And there are many, many other variations."