Scientists are Eliminating the Kilogram! So, What Happens Next?

Le Grande K is one of the cornerstone standards of the metric system. All kilograms everywhere in the world are copies of Le Grande K!! It is the only surviving physical piece of the original metric system, and it’s about to die! This shiny chunk of metal lives in a vault under Paris, and after it’s gone, what will be the heir to the kilogram throne? What’s going to happen to all of our measurements without this one true kilogram? How will we know mass?!

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Metric system overhaul will dethrone the one, true kilogram
I like this article, not just because the title is a Game of Thrones style pun, but also because the piece really gets into the nitty and the gritty of why we need this old kilogram to die.

Weights and Measures of the United States: A Brief History
I didn’t get to use this in the piece, but it was a fascinating read, and not at all brief. Seriously.

Brief history of the SI System
Even the history of how we got the metric system is incredible, you should definitely read about it!

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P.S — Next on the list of things to be redefined? The Second! Vibrations of atoms could be more accurate, I guess? As always more research is needed.

P.P.S – I know what you might be thinking if you’re in the US, this is dumb. I know a foot, because my foot and blah blah. Except that it’s actually not. Once the U.S. National Bureau of Standards was founded, the foot stopped being pegged to any specific human-based foot. Instead it's solely (see what I did there) based on the metric system. A foot is EXACTLY 0.3048 meters, were the meter to change in any way, the foot would change as well. The foot has nothing to do with humans. Seriously. Nothing. And it hasn't since the late 1800s.

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[Naygen]

"I respond to all my comments"
Is this.. is this my chance to get noticed by Trace?!

[Master_Therion]

Oh, I thought they were going to redefine the kilogram as "One murdered gram."
Because that would be exactly one... kill a gram.
edit: I just realized, if they did that there would be mass confusion.

[BlueSparrow]

"Always research is more is needed is more." is one of my favorite sentences now. Although I do have issue to your "Laws of the Universe are unchanging" assertion. Perhaps we haven't been studying long enough, maybe the laws of nature are as changing as the weather, but just on timescales that outlast planets, stars, or even galaxies. What if the speed of light in a vacuum (absent strong gravitational distortions) is changing by 1 m/s over a billion years ans we haven't been studying precisely enough or long enough to notice yet? Unlikely, I know, and we are of course limited to our human lifespans and technology, but I think it's fun to think about.

[KarinaHunter]

WHAT??? So appreciative of you covering this as I hadn't heard anything about it and likely would've found out so late... I'm going to embed this video in an "article" (well, it'll actually be more of a post - with the video, it's description and your social links) in my newspaper (regional daily for a few dozen small towns in Northern Ontario).

I'm surprised my daughter didn't bring home any talk of this from school (we're Canadian so she uses metric in Math class) as she's in Gr.7 and they were reviewing converting stuff by tens (m to cm; km to m; decameter to decimeter, etc.) I'm hoping we can find some more info on it without too much searching that she could bring to share with her class :D

BTW that is SUCH A GREAT SHIRT!!!! LOVE IT!

Thanks for another great video Trace :D Will you be giving us an update soon about how life post-DNews is going, how you're feeling about it all now that there's a little bit of time passed, if it's going as you expected, etc.

[mustardroshi]

Dis dude is the smart cousin of deadpool lol

[weinerwhistl]

You're killing it over here Trace, good to see you having your own channel. I always look forward to your nerd rambles.

[nck]

I imagine it to be quite hard for the US to switch to the metric system. It would probably cause a lot of confusion.
But still you guys on the other side of the pond should switch to the metric system, in the long term it will be more beneficial.

[tigerstudios]

Hi Trace !
I'm a 81.6 Kg Canadian that's been a fan of your for quite some time. Figured I'd say this since you did say you respond to ALL comments :)


I have a question about our universe but not sure if it's got an answer.... We can see back 14B light years and even the first hydrogen star (faintly)... but, can we see any of space, that is newer then our galaxy ? I'm not sure if I got that question right... I think I do.. I mean, is the speed of light preventing us from seeing space in the direction we are expanding to ?


Answer if you can, If you know Neil d. Tyson please ask him :)


Thanks, and great job Trace.

[constantdeenos]

Did I just hear that he responds to all his comments...EVERYONE MAKE THIS VIDEO GO VIRAL SO WE CAN MAKE HIM WRONG!!!

[aleccoles]

Loving the new videos Trace, hope the channel continues to snowball!

[PupkinConpaniet]

I love your excitement so much. It's so contagious!

[jayrad]

Trace! You are amazing! I loove the way you explain things and stuff 😁 keep doin what you doin fam 😘

[MrRyanMcCall]

Hope you are well Trace, keep up with the videos I love your narrative style 😊

[Domisgreater]

Trace is the metric standard for handsomeness, and he will never be replaced.

[Afinati]

Nine digits has always felt really short for something as important as the speed of light. 41 digits of pi gets you enough precision to account for all the atoms in the universe. Now that's helpful.

[mbainrot]

0:00 to 0:35 seconds - **In UT GOTY announcer voice** PUNNING :D

[n.radonjic]

"I know a foot is ma foot" 😂

[seabb]

whoa I love that “I have a question” intro. I wonder, do you make your graphics yourself? If so, what proram do you use?

[diabolicallink]

There's something I've been thinking about recently. The U.S. is one of three countries that hasn't switched to the metric system, but in every science class I have ever taken or really any academic thing that has to do with some sort of measurement always uses the metric system.
I know Day to day stuff isn't metric, but anything science based does. So can we really say that America doesn't use the metric system?

[MissySimpleM]

I'm SO here for all those puns.
Thanks for keeping me up to date on these things we were taught in school and that can change and then you don't notice and in 20 years time you're teaching your kids false facts.