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Kilogram Conflict Resolved At Last (nature.com)
An anonymous reader writes: As the capabilities of science and engineering expand, they rely more on the precision of measurements. It's vitally important, then, to make sure the standard units underpinning those measurements don't change. This is a problem for the kilogram. For years, it has remained the only SI unit based on a physical object — a small cylinder of platinum and iridium. Scientists have been arguing about how to replace it for decades, but now it looks like their efforts are finally reaching fruition. They finally have all the data they need to define the kilogram with mathematical constants, which solves the problem of the variability of physical objects. "One method, pioneered by an international team known as the Avogadro Project, involves counting the atoms in two silicon-28 spheres that each weigh the same as the reference kilogram. This allows them to calculate a value for Avogadro's constant, which the researchers convert into a value for Planck's constant. Another method uses a device called a watt balance to produce a value for Planck's constant by weighing a test mass calibrated according to the reference kilogram against an eletromagnetic force." Further research has narrowed down the value of Planck's constant, and experimental data from standards bodies is finally matching up. "If they are proved right, in 2018, Le Grand K will join the meter as a museum piece."
Because elitist and ignorant Europeans are too stupid to understand how to use Imperial measures.
I've lived in countries where both systems are used and the SI does nothing useful outside the areas of science and technology. For daily living, I never found a case where I was missing metric measures or where metric measures were making things easier.
Most of the time it was a draw and the rest of the time the Imperial measures wound up being better.
It is now. It was originally based on the distance from the equator to the North Pole. You had precisely 10,000 KM from that and with 1,000 M in a KM, that gave you 10,000,000 M from the Equator to the North Pole. Like most measures they've redefined it so that it was more constant, but it was a completely arbitrary measure that makes no sense outside of science.
The meter is a rather awkward unit to use. It's too long for practical use in daily living and it's too short to be of much use otherwise. You can't divide it into useful lengths either. If you divide it into quarters which are a useful length, you're then stuck with all sorts of nasty fractions if you're actually using it. MM and CM are really too small for practical use.
It's really time to junk the SI for daily living and replace it with something that actually works.
what, out of interest, is your best pro-imperial argument?
Personally a fan of Metric, but Imperial does have one major thing going for it - Easy divisibility by low prime numbers.
In the modern world, almost no one "does" math anymore. We use a computer or a calculator, and just get the answer. Shifting up or down by powers of ten makes for convenient readability, but otherwise doesn't matter in the least. Computers would actually work better if we switched to all binary, and wouldn't work any worse if we still used Imperial.
For most of human history, however, having units of measurement easily divisible into 2/3/4/5/6/8/9/10/12/etc parts meant that your average math-illiterate farmer or carpenter could still successfully figure out how to use a pair of oxen to spread four bushels of seed over a virgate (with a peck left over), or five cords of wood into 128 days of winter, and so on. No one cared about the weight of supper in terms of the speed of light in a vacuum, they cared about having enough to heat and eat through the winter.