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World|science|November 20, 2018 / 04:34 PM
Kilogram gets a new definition

AKIPRESS.COM - Scientists have changed the way the kilogram is defined, BBC reports.

Currently, it is defined by the weight of a platinum-based ingot called "Le Grand K" which is locked away in a safe in Paris.

On Friday, researchers meeting in Versailles voted to get rid of it in favour of defining a kilogram in terms of an electric current.

The decision was made at the General Conference on Weights and Measures.

But some scientists, such as Perdi Williams at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, have expressed mixed feelings about the change.

Le Grand K has been at the forefront of the international system of measuring weights since 1889. Several close replicas were made and distributed around the globe.

But the master kilogram and its copies were seen to change - ever so slightly - as they deteriorated.

In a world where accurate measurement is now critical in many areas, such as in drug development, nanotechnology and precision engineering - those responsible for maintaining the international system had no option but to move beyond Le Grand K to a more robust definition.

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