Certainly, the new "definitions" will not be taught to elementary pupils, and perhaps not even to high school students of physics or chemistry, except in advanced placement courses, or in college level physics or chemistry courses.
Treatment of these improved re-definitions as a *problem* with some hints of amusement, by members of the media is another indication of journalists lack of education in the sciences. Gene. ---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:43:40 -0800 (PST) >From: "John M. Steele" <[email protected]> >Subject: [USMA:49664] Re: Le Grand K >To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > > The press seems very caught up in this. I have seen > a number of recent articles. I think this is only a > refinement that matters to metrologists. > > A couple of more snippets from the article: > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > "This in some ways takes [the kilo] away from the > ordinary man...and makes it much less accessible," > John Hall, a Nobel Prize winning physicist from > Boulder, Colo., warned the gathering. > > . . . > > Back when Dr. Quinn was director of the > International Bureau of Weights and Measures, he > held one of three keys needed to open the safe where > Le Grand K is stored, under a trio of glass domes > resembling a nesting doll. Three different people > hold the keys and must be present to open the safe, > "like setting off a nuclear warhead," Dr. Quinn > chuckles. > > Several dozen copies of the original are stored at > national laboratories around the globe. Once every > 50 years or so, scientists carry the copies by hand > to Sèvres, just outside Paris, in little boxes, to > compare them to the original. > > ---------------------------------------------------- > > > > Le Grande K is pretty inaccessible to the man on the > street, and the "recipe" to get to lower order > working standards accessible to the common man does > not really matter much as long as the metrologists > get it right and don't change things perceptibly. >...
