Its 2013 and the metric system still needs fixing

Reminds me of the following from a documentary I watched a while back.

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Do you know how much a kilogram really is?

If you said yes, you'd be wrong. In fact no one will know until 2014 (maybe)

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It's a bit of a silly situation / discussion really. Ultimately, we create(d) these numbers to help us calculate things and nothing else. We randomly assigned a value to an object and gave it a name. Saying "well the object we once based it on is now different, so the value is now different too" is just making life difficult for yourself.

For example, we gave earth going round once a value and called it a year. So, we made a calendar based on that, and decided our age based on that principle as well. Let's say we suddenly find out by some miracle that the earth actually moves twice as fast as we thought, or something impacts it and changes it movement speed; does that suddenly make us twice as old as before? No, because we simply chose to assign a value and name to it, nothing more.

I understand why for scientific purposes the exact number needs to be correct, but arguing that because the object we based the kilogram on has changed, so should the value of the kilogram is, in my humble opinion, just silly.
 
It's a bit of a silly situation / discussion really. Ultimately, we create(d) these numbers to help us calculate things and nothing else. We randomly assigned a value to an object and gave it a name. Saying "well the object we once based it on is now different, so the value is now different too" is just making life difficult for yourself.

For example, we gave earth going round once a value and called it a year. So, we made a calendar based on that, and decided our age based on that principle as well. Let's say we suddenly find out by some miracle that the earth actually moves twice as fast as we thought, or something impacts it and changes it movement speed; does that suddenly make us twice as old as before? No, because we simply chose to assign a value and name to it, nothing more.

I understand why for scientific purposes the exact number needs to be correct, but arguing that because the object we based the kilogram on has changed, so should the value of the kilogram is, in my humble opinion, just silly.

The earths rotation doesn't have to be impacted for it to differ. The fact that the moon is moving away a few inches per year is changing this. I couldn't resist throwing that one in. :D
 
The earths rotation doesn't have to be impacted for it to differ. The fact that the moon is moving away a few inches per year is changing this. I couldn't resist throwing that one in. :D
Yes, there's several things impacting it (I imagine the moving of the continents may affect it over time as well, but didn't care to look it up), just thought I'd go into a bit more extreme scenario to get my thoughts across clearly. :)
 
Yes, there's several things impacting it (I imagine the moving of the continents may affect it over time as well, but didn't care to look it up), just thought I'd go into a bit more extreme scenario to get my thoughts across clearly. :)

hmmm I dunno about that but i didn't look it up I remember it from (you guessed it) from a documentary "if we had no moon" narrated by Patrick Stweart. I'll see if i can find it on YT.

Found it. For anyone that is interested it's a good watch.

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