So, the official metal lump that signifies the mass of one kilogram appears to be shedding mass: it is 50 micrograms lighter than the average of several copies. Either it has gotten lighter, or the copies have, on average, gotten heavier.
What could cause this? My first thought is radioactivity, but I would assume the physicists in charge would think of this too (the article doesn’t say).
But then, discussing it with Logan, we came up with better ideas:
1) A ghost inhabited the sample, and has now left. It is well known that ghosts have a mass of 0.00005 kilos.
2) Greys. Not sure how they did it, but aliens are crafty.
3) NASA faked the kilogram.
4) Hoagland is in charge of the mass, and the hyperdimensional physics dictated the — oh, screw it.
You know the deal: pretend this is a pareidolia post, and make up your own reason. Best one wins nothing. Good day sir!
September 17th, 2007 at 11:03 am
A wizard did it.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:05 am
9/11 Truthers stole it. They are under mind control of Cobra Commander.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Global warming has caused it to release some of its phlogiston.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:16 am
The block is on a weight-watching program and is try to drop the pounds.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Some of the particles lost their charm and scared the others off. Pesky quantum physics.
Either that or the block discovered “The Secret” and is trying to fly.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Global warming has caused it to release some of its phlogiston.
I think this one wins.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Eddie’s in the space time continuum.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:31 am
The missing 50 micrograms of the block of flowed into the base of the platform it is resting on.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Some of the particles must be on strike.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I’m sure there’s many saying “It’s the metric system, who gives a flying f— anyways!”
September 17th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Well, as we all know, quantum mechanics predicts that the state of sub atomic particles are in a state of flux which may, or may not exist at any moment. At the moment of the weighing the quantum mass of 0.000005 kg was “phased out”. Notice how some of the copies of this standard mass were slightly heavier. In those cases the the quantum mass has “Phased in”.
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September 17th, 2007 at 11:35 am
My guesses:
1) God wanted it to weigh less
2) The Tardis got too close to it, and affected its gravitational wobbly-bits
3) The micro-black hole from the Bermuda Triangle shifted to the area where the kilo is stored, and sucked up some of its mass
4) It was replaced by The Doctor, Doc Brown or somebody from the Enterprise with an almost exact duplicate, but they forgot to wipe off their fingerprint when they measured its weight, making it one fingerprint lighter when they cleaned it just before putting it back.
You keep using that word, “heavy.” Is there something wrong with the earth’s gravitational pull?
September 17th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Proton decay.
Emission of itty-bitty neutrinos.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:38 am
godidit to punnish all yoo sinnerz fro blevn that evilushun nonsens. See you cant xplain why that kilothingie is now weighing less than it did before, so darwinism is rong and the bible is rite. And how come theres still monkeys anyways if darwin was so rite.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Basically, the explanation is that in AD 325 the First Council of Nicaea excised the real Ten Commandments from the Bible in the name of making consistent doctrine. While the traditional interpretation of the Second Commandment goes along the lines of “Thou Shalt Not Set Up False Idols”, the real version actually states “Thou Shalt Not Set Up Artifacts As Definitions Of Physical Units”. Thus science is reaping the rewards of its Sin in the eyes of the Lord Thy God.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Other than radioactive decay, my best guess is that the gravitational pull under that area has lessened slightly. Perhaps a large solid mass that used to rest under France broke away with the magma under the mantle. Gravity does vary very slightly depending on where you are in the world, and your altitude, of course. Perhaps that area raised up a few inches over the last century. It isn’t like they’ve ever measured the mass outside of that one building.
Isn’t this all moot though? I thought they recently changed the standard to make the kilogram equal to a specific number of atoms of a specific element recently.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:49 am
France surrenders…
September 17th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I blame the liberal media.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Their government is covertly adding and removing small amounts in order to help import/export/sales ratios. After all, cash isn’t counted by weight, but goods is. When it’s beneficial for a kilo to be slightly less, they remove some, otherwise they add some. Currently, weight-based exports is higher (by cash value) then weight-based imports, so consequently it’s in the “decreased” state. This may be a lot of the reason the dollar is worth so little vs European currencies these days – the constant shortchanging of everything imported. Granted, it doesn’t seem like a lot of decrease, but when you multiply it by the vast quantities of exports I’d say it’s.. well.. lots.
Think about it, what other earthly reason could they have for not specifying a kg in a physical constant (x electron weights, x atom specific Si isotope, whatnot)? To control how much a kg is, that’s why and why only! Too bad for them they flubbed up and didn’t adjust all reference copies equally this time around – Muahhhahaha.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Just to put the loss into perspective:
The loss is proportional to the amount of marriages that will be affected once gay marriage is legalized in the United States.
The loss is proportional to the amount of people who would of cared if FOX had left uncensored Sally Field’s comments on the Emmy’s last night.
The loss is proportional to the amount of people who have brains on youtube (our own bad astronomer included.) …
FieldMedic
September 17th, 2007 at 11:53 am
They shouldn’t keep it on the Cavorite doily when they weight it.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:57 am
I blame the economy.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:58 am
The truth:
I have it.
If you want it back, it’ll cost you a signed copy of your next book.
Don’t ignore this – if you fail to recover it, I’ll take more, and at random times, but in amounts, steadily increasing in a prime number sequence so as to prove that no natural force is at work.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:59 am
The dark matter is leaking out – perhaps due to global warming.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
“0.00005 kilos”?
Isn’t that 0.05 g, or 5e4 micrograms?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
The kilogram just isn’t as everlasting as it was originally thought to be.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
This matter is quantum-coupled with fatty deposits on Oprah’s thighs.
Evidently she’s been working out again…
September 17th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
A fine Rocky Horror moment…
Magenta: I ask for nothing!
Frank: And you shall receive it, IN ABUNDANCE!
Personally, I believe the mass loss is Original Sin, which was taken away by the prayers of the faithful to the image of Jesus found in the secret sauce of a Big Mac found on the side of the road.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
A ghost weighs 50 micrograms??
Wow, then the human soul needs to go on a diet. It weighs in at 21 grams!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_Grams#Title
-Mark
September 17th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I’ll have to go with the one I haven’t seen yet.
Planet X is getting closer and it’s effect on the weight of the kilogram is actually a warning from the Zetans that we can’t ignore Nancy any more.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
The janitorial crew comes in late at night and dusts it to keep it clean. They can’t read the “Do Not Touch” sign, since it is in French. After a couple decades, the feather duster has eroded 5 micrograms.
Ed said:
> Other than radioactive decay, my best guess is that the gravitational pull under that area has lessened slightly. Perhaps a large solid mass that used to rest under France broke away with the magma under the mantle. Gravity does vary very slightly depending on where you are in the world, and your altitude, of course. Perhaps that area raised up a few inches over the last century. It isn’t like they’ve ever measured the mass outside of that one building.
Except the article explicitly states:
So how can it be an external effect if it is measured side-by-side with the other masses?
This does raise an interesting question about the comparison methods. The article states that the measured inconsistency is between this article and the average of the copies. How are they measuring the copies? In fact, how are they measuring this article? Couldn’t the problem be in the instrumentation, not the article?
> Isn’t this all moot though? I thought they recently changed the standard to make the kilogram equal to a specific number of atoms of a specific element recently.
From
http://www.bipm.org/en/scientific/mass/prototype.html
September 17th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Whatever it is, Al Gore thought of it first.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Assuming the prototype has actually lost mass, is it possible for some of the metal to simply sublimate directly off the surface, forming a thin metal vapor? Or is the entire thing kept in a sealed container, so the lost particles would still be trapped in its containing vessel?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
FrumiousBandersnark, those people think that a microgram is a small honey flavored cracker that, in a larger version, they could have made Smores out of.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
As I understand it, the standards are stored in air, and are cleaned (including rubbing!) before weighing for calibration purposes. Since they are stored at different locations, I assume different persons do the cleaning, and slightly different storage conditions are present. I would look into the cleaning procedure first. As I understand it, the weight of the contaminants that are removed during cleaning is much more than the observed loss.
Radioactive decay is one explanation; but some of the standards were made from the same material at the same time and then separated. Makes it unlikely to affect only one.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
I bet Uri Geller has something to do with it!
September 17th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Look around it for small metal shavings or nuggets. I lose weight after I take a crap, too, so you’d think after sitting in the same glass jar for so long you’d have to take a crap sometime.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
When they measured it there was less air sitting on top of it.
It was once stolen and the serial numbers filed off.
Since it’s the original, it was never labeled at all – while the copies were all marked “copy” and added weight.
Lost weight to be in better playing shape for Boston. Oops, sorry, wrong KG.
Original was handled carefully when measured, copies had fingerprints on them.
September 17th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
We all seem to be forgetting that a kilogram is defined as the mass of the kilogram prototype. The prototype cannot lose 50 micrograms because it is always exactly one kilogram. Therefore, the rest of the Universe has gained mass.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Too many electrons in upspin, therefore lightening the kilogram. On the other side of the universe is a kilogram with too many electrons in downspin, causing it to be heavier.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
As with any problem, simply reverse the polarity.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Pons and Fleischman had reunited and conducted an “asymmetric annihilation†experiment. For the best calibration, they decided to use the one and only reference kilogram in Sevres, France. Asymmetric annihilation does not need antimatter, the regular matter just annihilates itself. Unfortunately, the 1250 kw-hrs generated did not justify the fifty metric tons of coal necessary to facilitate the annihilation.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
There’s no such thing as gravity! The earth sucks! It just sucks less where the kilogram is stored. (It seems to be sucking more and more where I am.)
September 17th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Actually, there was a chance alignment of the Earth, Sun, Charon and a few asteroids that sucked a tiny bit of gravity out of that one specific building
September 17th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
It was the fate, the destiny of the kilogramme.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Perhaps, as a result of being moved, the “copies” have gained mass in accordance with Einstein’s theory of relativity while traveling closer (miniscule as it may be) to the speed of light than the “original” which presumably doesn’t move (relatively speaking, of course).
September 17th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
The first evidence of microscopic black holes passing through?
September 17th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Inspire by previous posts…
Possibly the cleaning fluid used was either more effective than normal removing extra contaminant ,OR that it was very slightly acidic and eroded some of the metal…
Possible aiding the above, that the platinum was extremely slightly impure and the other non-platinum part got selectively removed.
As an aside:
Note 5 micrograms
= .000005 gm
= 1 millionth of a standard spoon of sugar
= 0.00000018 Imperial Ounces
= 0.000000011 Imperial Pounds
September 17th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
The grand-unified SO(5) theory is correct after all, but protons only decay into neutrons in platinum-irridium alloys, not in large underground spheres of water.
Oh wait.. that’s too much like real physics. Um.. string theory did it!
September 17th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
The thetans inhabiting your body are making you THINK it’s lost mass. A quick clearing session with an E-meter(and a large donation) and you’ll see that in fact it has all of it’s original mass. Oh, and you’ll also see that there are in fact FOUR lights on the wall behind me, not three.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
It has been conscripted and is now in Iraq.
Don’t worry it will be back in 4 to 10 years.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
This is old news, but sadly I can’t find any good links about it (only a few things from the wayback machine in Danish), but a Danish kook by the name of Arne Gabs (millionaire from a photo developing lab) used this as ‘proof’ for the his ‘theory’ about gravitation.
Something about gravity-particles which the Earth absorbs from the sun causing it to swell. Eventually the earth would become a star yadda yadda yadda.
I can’t be arsed to find something more substantial now. Suffice it to say, you can never beat the real thing (craziness, I mean).
http://bibliotek.dk/vis.php?target=dfa&field1=lfc&term1=Gabs%20Arne
“Det nye univers : logiske visioner
Emne: kosmologi ; teoretisk fysik ; gravitation ; lys ; partikelfysik
Alternativ teori, som gør op med de etablerede videnskabelige teorier om big bang, med relativitetsteorien og kvanteteorien, samt giver en alternativ forklaring pÃ¥ tyngden og beskriver en ny kraft: frastødning”
“The new universe: logical visions
[...]
Alternative theory that overturns the established scientific theories about big bang, with the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, as well as offers a new explanation for gravity and describes a new force: repulsion”
Damn. I feel stoopeeder for translating that. Notice how 65 libraries have chosen to shelve it (I tried reading it … fifteen years or so ago, that’s how I know of this).
Gabs was rather ‘famous’ for ‘predicting’ long term weather (the papers trotted him out with stories about how the Summer was gonna turn out) as well as days when ‘catastrophes’ would happen: planes falling, earthquakes, &c &c.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
It was converted to Dark Energy.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
The particles won a trip to Tahiti. They’ll be back next Tuesday.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
The one inch was stolen by a time traveler from the future because in 2013, it’s presence would have destroyed the Earth.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
The difference was stolen by a time traveler from the future because in 2013, it’s presence would have destroyed the Earth.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Tax evasion.
Btw, the way to fix it is to cut power and restart. Or at least, that’s how I get things fixed.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I suppose defining the Avogadro number as exactly 6.02214179 * 10^23 and throwing the thing into the dumpster wouldn’t be as convenient at it may seem.
September 17th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
What else can be said?
September 17th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
It’s part of the conspiracy of the Trilateral Commission at the behest of the Bilderburgers. In time all kilograms will weigh nothing at all and those under the tyranny of the Metric System will be paying thousands and millions of Euros or yen or what have you, and getting almost nothing back.
Thank GOD for good ol’ solid English pounds (avoirdupois)!
September 17th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Perhaps someone diluted the kilogram. You know…to make it more…potent.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Inflation, that’s what it is.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
It’s one of the predicted signs of apocalypse.
Repent now, or suffer for eternity!
September 17th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
They are filming the French version of “The Biggest Loser” in the neighbourhood where the KG lives, and due to a Sheldrakian morphic resonance, the KG is losing weight too.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
It’s an inside job.
Someone is stealing it, just veeeeeeeerrrrry slowly…
September 17th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
One of the people weighing it to compare to the copies dropped it, quickly picked it up and told they no one. There is now a 50 microgram smudge of metal somewhere between it’s storage jar and the scales.
This would of course be an actual conspiracy between the people involved.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Aliens in a parallel universe are stealing protons from the kilo to power their food machines. Just like in Isaac Asimov’s “The God’s Themselves”!
or
Maybe, some of the atoms in the kilo have been raptured by Jesus. We’ll see them again when Christ comes back for us.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Indiana Jones took the original and left this ersatz kilogram of lighter weight — hey, at least this time he substituted metal for metal!
September 17th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
jesus did it you sinners. praise the lord!
September 17th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
A 5×10^-8 change in mass? A one ton mass at 1m from the bar would give about 7×10^-9 change in weight, so maybe a change in the water table….
Ooops! I’m sorry, my brain tried to actually think there.
Of course, the probability of random mutations in the bar evolving it into a new size is so remote that, obviously, this is the result of Intelligent Design. I mean, really- how fast does the DNA in iron mutate? NOT FAST ENOUGH.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Interesting… I was thinking as well it could possibly be a change in gravity in the area, due to the structures or where it is being measured. That would not be much… but this is only a tiny change in mass.
Perhaps past attempts were less accurate than thought? Or maybe some of the surface has somehow been ablated?
I don’t know. I doubt it’s radioactivity though, because there shouldn’t be any radioisotopes in the mix, assuimg they used the purest material avaliable, which I presume they did.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Aw, C’mon- the answer is soooooo obvious- the same thing happened to this thing that happened to the Blarney Stone and the Kabbah Stone- people kept kissing the darned things until there wasn’t much left.
I’d say look around the lab for any platinum blondes.
Jess Tauber
September 17th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
A ghost? I thought ghosts weighed 23 grams.
September 17th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
It’s frictional loss from Golum caressing his “Precioussss”.
— Steve
September 17th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
It’s on the Atkins diet?
September 17th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
if they want it back, the bidding starts tomorrow on ebay
September 17th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
It’s quite simple, really.
Samey-same.
Kisses
September 17th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Blame the engineers !
September 17th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
I just got back from a very LONG evening class on Stuart England, and had a blast reading through all the responses. You guys rock!
That said…
It’s not inflation, it’s the recession that caused it.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
I’d like to see the actual distribution of the mass for all the kilogram standards, so the prototype is 50 micrograms less than the average of the remainder. Was one of them disproportionately heavy, skewing the average? Perhaps someone surreptitiously handled that one and left a few dozen finger prints.
The information that the standard is lighter than the average isn’t meaningful without knowing if it is lighter now than for previous comparisons or if the copies are heavier.
Of course you would hope the folks involved in the standards institute thought of these questions and ruled them out already.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
With all those satellites we orbiting the earth, the mass of the earth has become less, giving less gravitational pull.
By the way i don’t know where the other ones are kept but do they allow for their position with regard to the equator?
September 17th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
It was sculpted by the Lord. If you use what you infidels call “electron microscope”, you’ll see His face there.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I have uncovered the real answer to this.
Colbert used his truthiness powers to spite the BA by changing the metric values in his heart.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Hey, I just thought of something. Has anyone checked the Slug standard lately? If the English system has been compromised as well the metric then maybe there’s a conspiracy afoot.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
It always weighed 0.00005 g less. They just covered it up.
September 17th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
It simple really, healthy diet and regular exercise.
So, Celery and Jazzercise are the reasons for the mass loss.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Of course, it’s the work of Underpants gnomes! Haven’t you done your research? Somehow, it’s them gnomes!
September 18th, 2007 at 1:54 am
There was no 50 micrograms to begin with. The 50 micrograms reported by Scienfitic Intelligence Agency was faulty.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:53 am
The Gollum conjecture…my favourite so far!
September 18th, 2007 at 4:02 am
All matter is slowly converting into dark matter. That is where my socks go when they mysteriously vanish from the linen basket, that is why the jelly bean machine on my desk empties without me eating any, or the food in my refridgerator is ghosted away at about midnight.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:22 am
The Kilogram was a supect in a burglary that took place in Paris. Police took a fingerprint from it, but found that it didn’t match fingerprints left at the crime scene.
In order to cover up this blunder, the police, working with NASA and the reverse vampires returned the Kg and wiped everyone’s memories!
September 18th, 2007 at 6:45 am
The answer is quite simple, when you look at it. Lump of metal, like water, have memory. They can remember when they first got out of home, when momy blew up in nova, they can remember when they settle down with others to form a new star, those were good times but also bad because he was rejected and had to content to join a planet forming and not even a big one.
But things were not as bad, because soon his planet would become the envy of the family, after all he and his rejected friends started a bio-chemical experiment called life and soon they became the most beautiful planet of the entire system. Oh those are the best memories.
But then, humans, a kind of ape of some sort, started to junk the place up and cut all those green trees. But the worst part was being captured and manipulated by those terrible humans. They get you, melt you and filter out all of your essence as to make you pure and bland, and they lock you up in a sterile place that forbids you to gain new particles and regain content.
So you’re lost and alone, devoid of all that constituted you for such a long time. You keep only your memories, you hold to them as hard as you can, but soon they start to fade out. If only you’re so luck as the other lumps that at least got to travel places…
So you see, the problem is that the poor lump of metal is suffering from amnesia. It is loosing it’s memory.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:04 am
As Mario Panighetti stated earlier in the comments it is very simple, the rest of the universe has gained mass. I know I put on a few pounds the last few years.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:44 am
It hasn’t changed in weight.
Everything else in the Universe gained 50 micrograms.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:03 am
The electromagnetic radiation leaking out of the unused wall outlets in the room is slowly degrading it. They need to spray the kilo with that EM-blocking lotion to protect it.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:17 am
I am actually Q and this is a test for you puny humans. I’ll give you a clue – it was much bigger in the PAST!
September 18th, 2007 at 8:17 am
As this was reported in the mainstream media, and is science-related, it is therefore wrong. (Rupert Murdoch must have futures invested in the pound.)
The reference masses are compared to the master via an electro-mechanical balance method, IIRC. My guess would be that the comparison procedures have been “improved” in some way, and thus inadvertently borked. You would assume that they also checked the reference masses against one another to verify that there was a definite deviation, but I have learnt the assumption lesson…
A few years back, it was noted that Indonesia’s master kg was losing mass compared to the Australian and New Zealand masters. Investigation determined that there was a diligent curator who would carefully polish the mass up prior to each comparison – thus removing a little mass each time.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Sublimation. Think of the pitch drop experiment: There is no such animal as a solid, only liquids of varying viscocity.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:05 am
It’s acquired some Hypercharge.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Mister Earl said: “Sublimation. Think of the pitch drop experiment: There is no such animal as a solid, only liquids of varying viscocity.”
Next you will tell us that glass is just a very viscous liquid and you would be wrong…..
September 18th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Obviously, it’s lost its soul.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Jenny Craig.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Once again, scientists are baffled.
It is obviously a miracle, since science cannot explain it, therefore proof positive of the existence of God and of the inerrant truth of the teachings of Roman Catholicism.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Obviously, God speaks English and uses the Imperial system of measurement, and has been slowly converting the world to use both. We can expect the kg to lose another 546,407,629 µg over time so the standard weight is, once again, the pound.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Oops, that’s 546,407,580, which is 1 kg – 1 lb – 50 micrograms in micrograms (I originally subtracted 1 µg).
September 18th, 2007 at 11:27 am
You know, it could just be some divine plan to slowly erode away at the accepted constants until the biblical accounts of things are wrong. Next they’ll be telling us that someone ate part of Pi, and it’s now 3.13…
Slowly moving towards that “3″
Or, it could just be a totally natural and while currently unknown, in the future it will become perfectly explainable…
September 18th, 2007 at 11:34 am
ABR said:
> Hey, I just thought of something. Has anyone checked the Slug standard lately? If the English system has been compromised as well the metric then maybe there’s a conspiracy afoot.
The Slug standard was stolen years ago. They have secretly been defining the slug in terms of the pound in terms of the kilogram for over a century. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.*
* There never was a slug standard. The official U.S. customary unit of mass is the avoirdupois pound. Somewhere or another physicists got it in their heads that weight was force, and thus made the pound a force unit. Then they had to define a mass unit, they named the “slug” (when not using “pounds-mass” and “pounds-force”). The Avoirdupois pound was originally defined in terms of the troy pound standard. As of the Mendenhall Order in 1893, all U.S. Customary units are defined in terms of S.I. units.
http://ts.nist.gov/WeightsAndMeasures/Metric/upload/SP_447.pdf
We now return you to your regularly scheduled conspiracy mongering.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I suppose it cant be the fabled proton decay, as the above poster said, it would mean that protons decay only in platinum iridium bars used in weight(mass) prototypes, and never decay in thousands of tons of water observed by tons of instruments.
Change of local gravity field is IMHO as plausible as above, aka non likely.
Some small fraction of metals were natural isotopes, or have been turned into isotopes and have decayed. Though that would have released quite a bit energy over the years, and it would have been noticed. I mean, if it is radioactive decay, about 20 millionth parts of the bars mass have been converted to energy trough decay…
So, this one is also Alien Space Bats.
Two solutions i can think off that might be most plausible:
a) it evaporated,
b) they cleaned it off…
September 18th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Aw, shucks, Irishman — you caught me. I’ll try to be more subtle next time. It’s nice to see there are still some people who *read* the comments.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
In fact 50 micrograms was rounded-up for release purposes from 42 micrograms or as its more commonly known One Tiny Answer. These is due largely to the accidental flushing of a seagull down a cruise ship toilet. Pants.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
It was the super-secret undetectable ninja teams from the eeeeeevil US gubmint that stole the mass to justify invading Iraq.
September 18th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
It’s the missing WMD.
September 18th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I thought “Global warming has caused it to release some of its phlogiston.” was the winner… Until I got to Greg B’s altie clinic comment. That one had me on the floor!
September 18th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Phil: “0.00005 kilos” = 50 mg; you need three more zeros to get to 50 ug.
Greg B: “0.000005 kg” = 5 mg; you need two more zeros to get to 50 ug.
Blake Stacey: yes, it is; you’re right.
0.05 kg = 50 g
0.00005 kg = 50 mg
0.00000005 kg = 50 ug
September 18th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Actually, it’s quite simple. The power company originally misread the meter 1250 kW-hr too high. They’ve since discovered their error, and adjusted the reading down by this amount. So not to worry — the 50 mcg will be restored as soon as they get the discrepant energy back and convert it back into Pt-Ir.
I still like the global-warming-phlogiston explanation. But if I win the nothing, I promise to be humble. And to donate it to Al Gore to buy no jet fuel. Say, which judges do I bribe with a little nothing in order to win the big nothing?
P.S. Why are the comment times shown in MDT (= CST) (= UT-6hr) ?
September 19th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Fred, because Phil resides in Colorado (MDT).
September 19th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
My guess is that the platinum and iridium alloy is getting old and starting to lose its memory.
October 1st, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Um… I still have it. It’s taking up space on my shelf. Give in to my demands already.