A Kilogram Is Now a Kilogram—Forever | SciShow News

This week in SciShow News, there's a new kilogram in town, and we might be closer to understanding why people love coffee so much!

Hosted by: Hank Green

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[Brainstorm]

I love how this change in definition reflects our progress in scientific understanding of the universe. Just damn beautiful!

[jerry]

I think I’ll just borrow Le Grande K, considering -it’s a huge chunk of platinum- it’s lost most of its importance anyway.

[Zeytrixx]

What a huge change. It went from a kilogram, to a kilogram.

[foreachepsilon]

Ummm it was a MASSIVE change? Missed opportunity!

[yamagishisan]

To all the people who think the redefinition of the kilo to a universal constant isn't a big deal:
Like Hank said, when you are thinking in terms of effective medicine doses, the unit of measurement has to be consistent because a tiny change to the kilogram is a massive change when you get down to the nano scale. It's the same principle as deflecting an asteroid by making tiny adjustments to it when it is very far out, because those changes translate to very significant changes the further the distance it has to travel. It's essentially the same thing but with weight. To deflect an earth-bound asteroid, you simply need to travel to it years in advance and park your craft near the asteroid, because the slight change in gravity that far out changes the trajectory a significant amount by the time it gets closer.
Take Pi, for instance; when you are calculating small numbers, you don't need as many decimal places because for small numbers, the accuracy won't be changed any significant amount, but when you are calculating for really large numbers, you need more decimals of Pi to make the calculations more accurate.

[EnigmacTheFirst]

“Le Grand K has lost an estimated 50 micrograms...”

How did they measure the mass of an object using units defined by said object?

[taylor-]

*scottish accent* a keelogram o’ feathers

[Master_Therion]

What! The kilogram, the basic unit of mass, has been changed!?!
Won't this cause _mass_ confusion?

[Ragebh]

I got an Ad for the entire Lego movie so I won't actually see the video until an hour from now, that's all I have to say

[SOUNDSYSTEM]

Does that mean that a kilogram of feathers weighs more than a kilogram of steel?

[RangerRuby]

It's so beautiful to see Scientist from all over the world make a new definition for Le Grand K! #PowerofScience

[bigJovialJon]

The event was NOT *weighty.* It was *massive.*

[ieatthebooty]

Your title for this topic is actually the best wording for an explanation on what this means.

Others were acting like we change the fundamentals of the kilogram or the metric system itself, and I think that that was incredibly confusing to some people, primarily Americans who already hate the metric system for absolutely no reason

[UKFX]

Except for stubborn Americans who refuse to use metric.

[DennisRash]

This really is a huge step towards the future. If you add up more and more years things would make it much more inaccurate. I'm quite fascinated by the new kilogram. It certainly wasn't simple to create it.

[yamagishisan]

3:33 I am anosmic, which means I don't have a sense of smell. I can still taste foods, especially bitter ones. Sprouts don't taste bitter to me at all so I am suggesting that the bitterness that you apparently experience doesn't come from the tastebuds but from your olfactory system. I've never heard about sprouts tasting bitter to anyone before. To me, they taste a little like broccoli and have a texture similar to wilted cabbage.

[caruser]

5:40 Same! I drink iced decaf black and people always ask me why I even bother lol

[grandmamosays]

I started drinking coffee before I hit my teens, but in my house coffee was filled with Carnation milk and five heaping tablespoons of sugar. I drink coffee all day long and it's usually the only thing I drink, but today I take my coffee with a little 2% milk and two sweeteners in a travel size mug. I needed the Thermos mug because I'm really clumsy and kept knocking my cup over.

[ianmacfarlane]

Next week the USA is doing the same thing with the pound.
Instead of a pound of barley, they're changing it to a pound of rice.

[Thunderwalker]

"It shouldn't! Its a lump of metal." Ha! I didn't see that twist coming in that joke.