Kevin Gowen wrote:

> Soon yall will have to learn what an ounce is.
> http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/opinion_10640925.shtml
>
> In 1889, the International Committee on Weights and Measures defined the
> kilogram by the weight of a cylinder cast in England of platinum and
> iridium. This standard kilogram is secured in a heavily guarded chateau
> outside Paris. It is inspected once a year by the only three people who have
> keys.
> Here’s the problem: Yearly inspections have apparently shown that the
> kilogram cylinder has lost weight, approximately 50 micrograms.

But how would they know?

> That’s less
> than the weight of a grain of salt, but it’s plenty to send the world of
> weights and measures into an epic tizzy. Quantities of human ingenuity are
> being expended to re-adjust the kilo and render it eternally precise. For
> example, German scientists are working in Russian nuclear facilities to
> produce a perfectly round 1-kilo sphere of silicon. Then, by knowing the
> number of atoms in the sphere and their distance from one another ...
>
> --
> Kevin Gowen