TIL: Today I Learned

[Arakhor]

I wrote "pounds and ounces" specifically so people couldn't make a sterling joke. Damn you, Tim!

 

[Cutlass]

I wrote "pounds and ounces" specifically so people couldn't make a sterling joke. Damn you, Tim!

But sterling is sold by the once....

 

[HoloDoc]

I wrote "pounds and ounces" specifically so people couldn't make a sterling joke. Damn you, Tim!

Which is why I didn't make it the first time around. I wanted to.

 

[Arakhor]

But sterling is sold by the once....

Troy ounces, maybe. People aren't measured in Troy weights, even if they are as good as gold.

Which is why I didn't make it the first time around. I wanted to.

You may enjoy a rendition of the QI klaxon instead.

 

[Snerk]

They still haven't found a way to hard quantify the kilogram?? Haven't they been working on that for decades now?

 

[Birdjaguar]

They still haven't found a way to hard quantify the kilogram?? Haven't they been working on that for decades now?

Dark matter keeps screwing up the calculations.

 

[brennan]

Info from the NPL:

The kilogram is the only remaining base unit to be defined by a physical object. All standards of mass must ultimately be traceable to this one object, a cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in France.

As science and industry's requirement for a more accurate way to measure extreme weights increases, the search is on for a definition of the kilogram in terms of a fundamental constant to improve its long-term stability and to eliminate the necessity for traceability to a single physical artefact.

Two key approaches are being pursued: building an electrical kilogram and counting atoms.

The quantum electrical standards for voltage and resistance, which are based upon the Planck constant and the elementary charge, are more stable than the present kilogram. The kilogram can be accurately compared with these standards using a moving-coil watt balance. Here, the weight of a 1 kg mass is balanced against the electromagnetic force generated by a current-carrying coil hung in a magnetic field. The ratio of the force generated by the coil to the the current passing through it is calibrated in a second phase of the experiment, which measures the voltage generated by the coil as it is moved at a measured velocity through the magnetic field. As the voltage and the current are measured using quantum electrical standards, the kilogram can be defined in terms of a fixed value of the Planck constant plus the existing definitions of the metre and the second.

The second approach relates the kilogram to an atomic mass, so that it can be defined as the mass of a fixed number of atoms. The number of atoms in a perfect silicon crystal can be counted by measuring its volume and dividing this by the volume a single atom occupies. This volume is measured by combined X-ray and optical interference techniques. This process amounts to a very accurate measurement of the Avogadro constant (NA).

These methods can only be used to measure the base unit if they can measure exactly one kilogram on demand. The first step is getting the resolution. NPL has developed the Kibble balance, which balances the gravitational force with an electromagnetic force. The next step is to get repeatable results and the final step is to ensure that the individual electrical and atomic mass experiments are in agreement. Both the electrical kilogram researchers and the atom counters are pursuing the ultimate target of measuring a kilogram with an accuracy of a millionth of one percent, every time.

 

[sophie]

I've been looking for a place where cities across a border have exactly the same name, but it isn't named after one of the states, to see if that is regarded as less confusing. Like if East St Louis, Illinois was just named St Louis. I haven't found any though.

Tahoe?

 

[Dachs]

Tahoe?

I thought of that, but I'm pretty sure there's no Tahoe municipality on the Nevada side. Both Tahoe City and South Lake Tahoe are on the California side of the border.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Yeah, the community on the Nevada side is cleverly named "Stateline."

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I might have learned something today, or maybe I heard it wrong. UK posters can help me out.

There was this Brit on TV being interviewed; being asked about how May reacts to D'ump. That's not important, but the woman said, I think, that May "Just flows with it." That's not really important either, except that the reason I'm not sure about what she said is that if she said "flows" she said it so it rhymes with "cows." Is that normal?

 

[Arakhor]

In my experience, not in the slightest.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

In my experience, not in the slightest.

So you normally go with the flow like the rest of us, and only Theresa May flows with the cows? Maybe she wasn't saying flow at all. I wonder if I can find a link to that interview...

 

[HoloDoc]

Were the cows running through wheat fields?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I've been looking for a place where cities across a border have exactly the same name, but it isn't named after one of the states, to see if that is regarded as less confusing. Like if East St Louis, Illinois was just named St Louis. I haven't found any though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Michigan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario

 

[Morty]

she said "flows" she said it so it rhymes with "cows"

fl-ow-s and c-ow-s?? (as in "ow that hurt"???)
Not something I would ever use, but wonder if it's some London accent (or is that dialect?)?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Michigan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario

You....are....awesome! I had given up on finding this, or someone finding it for me. You're the best.

 

[HoloDoc]

She may be flowing with cows as an ex-PM soon, if this no-confidence vote goes (gows?) ahead...

 

[Timsup2nothin]

fl-ow-s and c-ow-s?? (as in "ow that hurt"???)
Not something I would ever use, but wonder if it's some London accent (or is that dialect?)?

Yeah. It was like flowers without the -ers. She was some former official aide from May's office and she was on CNN, but it seems like her interview wasn't significant enough to make it to their website.

She may be flowing with cows as an ex-PM soon, if this no-confidence vote goes (gows?) ahead...

Gow with the flow, baby, gow with the flow.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

I might have learned something today, or maybe I heard it wrong. UK posters can help me out.

There was this Brit on TV being interviewed; being asked about how May reacts to D'ump. That's not important, but the woman said, I think, that May "Just flows with it." That's not really important either, except that the reason I'm not sure about what she said is that if she said "flows" she said it so it rhymes with "cows." Is that normal?

In my experience, not in the slightest.

To a 'Murcan ear a cockernee pronunciation might sound like that.