Housed in France’s International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the weight is actually the yardstick the ampere, mole and candela units are measured by. While the kilogram hasn’t changed much over those 130 years, it’s enough cause for concern that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology has stated they’re going to lodge a formal complaint at next year’s General Conference on Weights and Measures.
Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall as (kilograms of) shit hits the fan then? [GizMag]
Coming from a country that refuses to adopt the metric system, do we really care what they think?
Hear, hear,... The US is quickly becoming redundent now anyway, but given their idiocy when it comes to education and health anything they have to say about the metric system has to be a joke! :)
The 1 kilogram standard degrades over time so it becomes less of a kilogram over time.
America only cares because the 1 pound standard is calculated from the 1 kilogram standard.
are the yanks claiming the kilo block is wrong because its not a pound?
seriously though how cool is the metric system how its all interchangeable, base ten, and based on the properties of water
Why would Americans care? They still haven't figured out the metric system!
America... Always interfering with other countries business. HOW I HATE THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM!
How do you think it feels to work for an American engineering company? Some measurements are imperial, some metric. This doesn't even take into account tach count measurements being expressed in "mils" when they're actually "thous."
Stupid Americans.
It is interesting to note that this Kilogram weight has ruler in inches alongside it?
The proposal came from the American representative of the committee, though. Ironically, the metric system is international, while the US has its own slightly varied version of the imperial system.
What's the surprise? Since when do americans about kilograms at all? Or Litres, Metres, Newtons, Celsius or any other rational unit for that matter?
I bet most Americans have never heard of a kilogram.
Shouldn't the US drop the fucking Imperial system before whinging about metrics?
Shit.
This is actually an international proposal from the BIPM-CIPM committee, of which a NIST official from the US is one of many members, in addition to those from Australia (he's the president of the CIPM), Canada, France, Mexico, and the Russian Federation-- the confusion comes from the fact that earlier news reports picked up on our article about the proposal which is from us in the US: http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/20101026_si.cfm
"they’re going to lodge a formal complaint at next year’s General Conference on Weights and Measures"
Now there's an exciting sounding conference for you! zzz
It's a resolution, not a complaint, introduced by the BIPM-CCU and passed by the CIPM, with international membership. This is not a US proposal, complaint, or concern, but an international proposal advanced by a group that includes Australia, France, Mexico and many others. It's a scientific proposal. Again, I believe the confusion stemmed from the fact that the initial news articles picked up on our article about the proposal in the US, which I list as the website here, but some subsequent articles picked up on the news articles without seeing our account and something got lost In translation. Our article states things in international terms I welcome all to read it. Thanks so much, Ben
Perhaps our American friends should first adopt a modern, sensible system of weights and measures.
Silly Americans. They obviously have overlooked the fact that 1 kg is 1 litre of water.
ehem... aren't US measurements still from the system thats based of the measurements of the ruling king/emperor at the time...
hmm, out of boredom I checked it out ,
"The most significant change in the possible future revision of the SI would be in the kilogram, the only one of the SI’s seven base units* still defined in terms of a material “artifact”: a 130-year-old platinum-iridium cylinder maintained at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France. The kilogram artifact poses long-term problems because its mass changes slightly over time. The proposed revision “puts the SI on a firm foundation,” says Ambler Thompson, a NIST scientist involved in the international effort. “We get rid of the last artifact.”
From my reading (remember. I'm just a bored Aussie cursing the net), it seems the seppo's (Aussie slang for "yanks") only seem concerned with the degrading factor of the base kilogram, check the link provided in the comments by Ben Stein, all in all the USA has only got itself to blame for not going metric.
If you do a bit of reading on the subject, the way the standard weight is kept and measured, and how copies are made and then distributed and compared (yearly?) with all other copies, it's far more complicated than you'd imagine.
Part of it is that the object oxidises in air, so they have to keep it in a bell jar, and polish it every now and again, which alters its physical properties slightly. There are multiple copies, and they are known to vary from the original, plus each year their variance from the original changes too.
There's not much better material to make it out of, either, so these are just things we have to accept. We live in an imperfect, physical world.
The amount of self-righteous idiocy here is unbearable.
Yes, Americans use Imperial for day-to-day life. You'll go into a supermarket and see most are sold in pounds, gallons etc. But they also have metric labels as well.
We have the same thing on our shores where items packaged in Imperial units on our shelves have strangely arbitrary quantities like 355ml. This is because the original quantity is 12 ounces. It works both ways.
Metric is most commonly used in the US in: Science, education, military, engineering etc. In these fields, Metric predominates and it's likely the scientists and engineers who raised this objection regarding the French 1 kg mass.
But, being Gizmodo, flame on you willfully ignorant morons.
Hardly.
If you'd bothered to read some of the comments you'd see Tim-e up there makes a valid complaint about having to deal with both Imperial and Metric wierdness in an America engeneering firm.
And if Metric dominates all the, you know, the important parts of the American sector like Science, Engeneering (in which case, why is Tim-e upset?), Education and Military; why not just phase out the Imperial measurements already?
According to you everyone is using Metric anyway, so why doesn't America just stop the confusion?
Really, your the only one who's sounding self-rightious, ignorant and idiotic.
The point I'm making is, every single field which counts is using Metric anyway. Imperial's staying for a long time because it's what's used in every day life, but there are thousands of bright American engineers, scientists and educators who all agree that using a Metric system is superior. But as always with that country, it's being held back by a certain demographic interested in maintaining the status quo.
The smugness from 90% of the posts on this page come from the "Stupid American! Hurf Durf!" Which is juvenile and ignorant. People just don't see to get it through their brains that had we been born in that country, we'd be just as comfortable with whatever units we grew up in, have no incentive to change, and have no power to change it as individuals. But of course, being Australians we must automatically assume all Americans are: stupid, uneducated, fat, bible-thumping and love fast food and football, when they're obviously not.
You also mention how "why don't they just phase out Imperial already?", do you know how late it took for AUSTRALIA to adopt Metric? Or how many people opposed it? Or that there are still old-timers these days using feet, gallons and ounces? Now imagine that, except all the old guys are now militant, have guns and control the country. Welcome to the USA.
That's exactly what they're trying to do. They're using education, military, sciences etc to ease future generations of kids into using metric so they won't be future geriatrics who'll find it difficult using Imperial units in a Metric world.
Because in the US, you can bet dollars to donuts some insane 'patriot' from the Right will say it's the true 'American' right and anyone who adopts Metric is communist/terrorist/French. It's almost impossible to bring about reform in the US without it turning into a partisan debate. People will always want to maintain the status quo, and usually, they win. Have some compassion for the regular folk who were just raised in inches and feet and literally cannot do anything about it.
You can't use "that's just how things are" as an excuse for how long it's taken for Imperial to go away.
Sure, Australia took long to catch on too, but hey, whoever opposed it then were idiots as well. But that doesn't matter because here we all are, Metric'd up and playing ball. Metric ball.
We're making fun of America becuase it IS funny, the half arsed "Oh we use it sometimes" doesn't cut it. How long do they need to 'ease them into it'? How dumb are they? We can all do it, what gives?
You talk about how we all think the US is full of bible bashing idiots and then use that same argument for why reform hasn't come.
"...some insane ‘patriot’ from the Right will say it’s the true ‘American’ right and anyone who adopts Metric is communist/terrorist/French."
We're smug because we're right, and you've just cemented our proof with your own 'points'.
The Kilogram will be refined and re-weighed, the world will keep on laughing at the US untill they get their act together.
Don't defend them, if you're for the Metric system, stand up and do something. Change is the only constant, and the US needs to get with the program.
It's this exact cavalier attitude which annoys me. Every country has its own quirks and problems and because America's America, their ones are larger than most.
You don't empathise with them, you openly mock units they grew up with and don't know any better. You trivialise it because you, personally, never had to bother. If you were born a few decades earlier, and had to bother with your entire system being forcefully supplanted, I'm almost certain you'd have sung a different tune.
I suppose you also laugh at how screwed up their healthcare system is right? And how 'stupid' they are for not fixing it and replacing their HMOs with Universal Healthcare.
"Why don't they do something about it? It's their problem. It's so easy!" is a sentiment I hear all too often from Aussies. It's too easy to take our wonderful healthcare system for granted, and forget just how difficult it was to pioneer. Millions of Americans are being screwed over and no matter how hard they rally, vote or march; there are always those with a vested interest in KEEPING them down.
Your point isn't a mockery of the American system, it's debasement of individuals due to personal ignorance or closed-mindedness about their situations and conditioning. THAT is why I 'defend' them, I personally support the Metric system but I believe a certain open-mindedness comes first.
Wow, just wow.
So we've gone from an agrument about the US converting to Metric to you making verbose assumptions about MY opinion on the US healthcare system. I see your fient and jab, and will only reply with the following.
Personally, I haven't made any comments on the US healthcare system, I'm not knowledgeable enough on the US economy or politics to partake in backseat criticism on their debates or application of process. The whole thing is far to complex, and honnestly it doesn't come up in casual conversation between me or my friends. We're normally too focused on Australian economics or politics (or moaning about the Imperial system, engineers huh?... Geez).
However I do feel I can weigh in on this topic because the problems affects people/countries outside of the US. Especially when the US tries to critise the accuracy of the Metric system when their own is practically medievil!
It's like the guy on the horse and cart bitching about how many kms the guy in the car gets per tank.
I have friends in both the engineering and mechanical industry, all of which complain about the Imperial system because they have to deal with it on a monthly basis.
Only a few countries still use Imperial system, the US, Burma, Liberia and South-Yamen. The rest of the developed world is forced to deal with this outdated and problematic measurement system because the US is stubborn and slow.
Sure everyone here could have limited their post to "Imperial measurement supporters" instead of "American's". But considering the country itself is considered and Imperial measurement country then our generalisation is correct. I'm sure there's pleanty of right wing patriots who also support the Metric system, and you just debased them just the same way we did.
It's not like we're discussing theories here, it's a fact (you know base ten and all that) Metric is more accurate, better and used practically worldwide. Even if you ignore the maths (which you shouldn't), the worldwide dominance alone should be an indication for change.
We're not insulting the fat kid in the playground because we're mean, we're insulting the bully who makes sports less fun because he like his rules better.
The point I'm making is: we openly mock them becasue it's been over 20 years (at least from the late-comers of Australia's timeline)since Metric has become the norm for the developed world and now we're having to deal with the problems caused by the stragglers.
In the 21st century it's absurd to think the powerhouse that is the US still uses a measurement system that was used by the Romans, despite there being a superior and popular system that's been around for decades.
Being open minded is one thing, but when you blatantly and consitantly tollerate the stubbornness and stupidity of others your just enabling them and restricting the progress of the rest of the world.
If you read this and still think your right, even after you debased American's the same way we did, via generalisation, then we have nothing more to talk about.
This is agree to disagree position, I feel the smug generalised comments are justified.
Why don't you base 1kg on water.
Something like.
1 Litre of 18 megaohm resistant, pure distilled filtered water, at 1000kpa pressure, at sea level, at 20C temperature.
hmmm.. they all have their problems.
I guess then we have to define volume, pressure, temperature and water purity in order to get a weight.
Also, why is this an issue anyway. If we know it is degrading, and by how much, cannot we just work back to the original mass from first principles?
You would think it would be easier to define a smaller mass first, something like a gram and then multiply to get your kg...