Collaborate Disseminate
It always fascinates us that every single thing that is made had to be designed by someone. Even something as simple as a bag and box that holds cereal. Someone …read more Continue reading New Metric Prefixes get Bigger and Smaller
We have all heard that good variable names are important for creating readable programs — advice that will serve you well when you come back to your code two years later, or even twenty. Sometimes, when you are so deep …read more
One of the most illuminating high school courses no doubt for many readers as much as for your scribe, was the series of physics lessons during which the SI units were explained. That glorious sense of having the order of the universe unlocked into an interlocking series of units whose definitions could all be derived in terms of a series of base units was mind-blowing in those early teen years, and even though the explanations might have been at a for-the-children level that has been blown out of the water by later tiers of learning it’s still a bedrock that …read more
Continue reading The Kilogramme Will Cease To Be A Physical Entity
Machined from a chunk of a virtually indestructible platinum-iridium alloy, the international prototype kilogram (IPK) was built to last for an eternity. And yet, being the last remaining, physical artifact in a club of fundamental SI units, the current definition of the kilogram has worn out. Most certainly the watt-balance will take its place, and redefine the kilogram with a true, physical phenomenon. [Grady] just built his own watt-balance from scratch, and he provides you with a decent portion of scientific background on the matter.
A watt-balance doesn’t look or operate much different from a regular balance, only instead of …read more
Continue reading DIY Watt-Balance Redefines Your Kilograms From Scratch