Dear Colleagues,
I have conveyed to some key people in the CCU and the BIPM the common
concerns that were expressed here regarding the use of the phrase "New
SI" and regarding the need for an explicit declaration on stability in
the magnitude of the units, notably the kilogram. They have taken those
matters under advisement and are considering editorial actions they
might take. We thus could see some revisions to this new page on the
BIPM website or in one or more of the listed articles -- or both -- in
the near future. So, please help me keep an eye on that material.
As a Fellow of the USMA I take an interest in using my work contacts in
some international standards developing organizations to give you some
voice outside the U.S. when I am able to do so. This should not conflict
with the work the USMA officers do in the U.S. Indeed, we are working in
parallel here (synergy!) and share access to at least one of those contacts.
Thank you for your feedback! Your opinions here do count but we must
keep in mind that many groups have interests in these matters.
Regards,
Jim Frysinger
On 2011-02-19 1736, James R. Frysinger wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to call your attention to a new web page concerning the
"New SI" at http://www.bipm.org that consolidates several papers on this
topic. This is meant to be an educational body of work to prepare the
public for what is intended to be a redefinition of SI base units. The
actual page, which indexes and links to those documents is at
http://www.bipm.org/en/si/new_si/
Implementation of that redefinition awaits refinement of some
experimental determinations, but the structure of the proposed new base
unit definitions are now well settled. Since this will be a rather major
change, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) and
its Consultative Committee on Units (CCU) recommend that education of
the public should start now, even while the refinement of the
fundamental values is taking place. It is thus intended that educators,
authors, and others should be prepared to incorporate the new
definitions in their materials and will not be caught unaware when the
actual change takes place. This new BIPM page serves the purpose of
meeting that intent by providing illustrative articles.
Regards,
James R. Frysinger (Jim)
Chair, IEEE SCC 14
Vice Chair, IEEE/ASTM Joint Committee for Maintaining SI 10
Deputy Technical Advisor, U.S. TAGs to ISO/TC 12 and IEC/TC 25
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
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