Kilogram Reference Losing Weight 546
doubleacr writes "Ran across a story on CNN that says the "118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight — if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.""
Sublimation? (Score:4, Interesting)
Mass? (Score:2, Interesting)
Possible reason? (Score:5, Interesting)
The Faster We Go, The Rounder We Get (Score:4, Interesting)
Who's converting our extra mass to energy? This great criminal must be found before we all blueshift past the event horizon!
Or, this is just the greatest museum heist Paris has ever seen.
Re:The metre must be shrinking then... (Score:5, Interesting)
Light speed is not constant in a gravitational field, if some of the other posters are correct and the kilogram has changed because of a localised gravitational shift, then its possible that the definition of a metre could also have changed..
Re:Mass? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The Kilogram is not losing weight (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:They should redefine a kilogram (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Before making announcements of this nature... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Inertia (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:The Kilogram is not losing weight (Score:3, Interesting)
Just a small nitpick: that's not the only reason for non-integer masses in periodic tables. When neutrons and protons come together in an atom nucleus, their mass change, and a corresponding amount of energy (E=m*c^2) is released or absorbed. For example, while the atomic mass of Carbon-12 is 12, the atomic mass of Hydrogen-1 (only one proton) is a little over 1.
In effect, that's how nuclear bombs work: when the nucleus of an atom of plutonium breaks up, the mass of the resulting pieces is less than the mass of the original nucleus; the difference is released as radiation and heat.
The funniest part (Score:4, Interesting)