The thylacine, that famous extinct Australian icon colloquially known as the Tasmanian Tiger, is revealed to have been only about half as big as once thought—not a "big" bad wolf after all.
Plants & Animals
Aug 19, 2020
0
90
Between November 2008 and October 2014, an additional $85 billion was created on an almost-monthly basis by the United States Federal Reserve Bank. As a result, the total amount of newly created electronic cash used to purchase ...
Economics & Business
Jul 29, 2019
1
3
We measure stuff all the time—how long, how heavy, how hot, and so on—because we need to for things such as trade, health and knowledge. But making sure our measurements compare apples with apples has been a challenge: ...
General Physics
May 20, 2019
0
131
In a subterranean vault in a suburb of Paris lies a small, rarely seen metal cylinder known as Le Grand K.
General Physics
May 20, 2019
17
1860
A rare three-month-old albino penguin made its first public appearance at a zoo in the Polish Baltic port city of Gdansk, where its keepers claim it is the only one of its kind in captivity.
Plants & Animals
Mar 22, 2019
0
4
The world has one official kilogram against which all other country's kilograms are measured and scales calibrated.
General Physics
Dec 17, 2018
0
1103
How much is a kilogram? 1,000 grams. 2.20462 pounds. Or 0.0685 slugs based on the old Imperial gravitational system. But where does this amount actually come from and how can everyone be sure they are using the same measurement?
General Physics
Nov 15, 2018
1
111
Officials with the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) have announced that at a meeting to be held next week, four of the base units used in the metric system will be redefined. The four units under review are ...
A Buffalo museum has made a rare discovery within its own collection: a fully intact egg from the extinct elephant bird that until now, was thought to be fake.
Archaeology
Apr 25, 2018
1
83
Researchers from the Universities of Bremen and Innsbruck have shown in a recent study that the further melting of glaciers cannot be prevented in the current century—even if all emissions were curtailed. However, due to ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 20, 2018
10
1875
The kilogram or kilogramme (SI symbol: kg), also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram (IPK), which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water. The avoirdupois (or international) pound, used in both the Imperial system and U.S. customary units, is defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg, making one kilogram approximately equal to 2.2046 avoirdupois pounds.
In everyday usage, the mass of an object given in kilograms is often referred to as its weight, which is the measure of the gravitational force—or heaviness—of an object. Weight given in kilograms is technically the non‑SI unit of measure known as the kilogram-force. The equivalent unit of force in the avoirdupois system of measurement is the pound-force. In strict scientific contexts, forces are typically measured with the SI unit newton.
The kilogram is the only SI base unit with an SI prefix as part of its name. It is also the only SI unit that is still directly defined by an artifact rather than a fundamental physical property that can be reproduced in different laboratories. Four of the seven base units in the SI system are defined relative to the kilogram so its stability is important.
The International Prototype Kilogram is kept in the custody of the International Bureau for Weights and Measures (BIPM) who hold it on behalf of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM). After the International Prototype Kilogram had been found to vary in mass over time, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) recommended in 2005 that the kilogram be redefined in terms of a fundamental constant of nature. At its 24th meeting the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) agreed in principle that the kilogram should be redefined in terms of the Planck constant, but deferred a final decision until its next meeting, scheduled for 2014.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
