Wenatchee Home Inspector-Weighing in on the Subject!

Well so I was looking for what could be hiding under the sink- chemicals, abandoned body parts, old socks, scrubbing utensils or is it the Infamous SCALE!

We all look at this "horror of a device" from time to time to see how we slipped through the ages (gravity still works). I guess I lost that ol' girly figure I once had. But have you ever wondered about these devices of mental despair?

  How do you get the perfect weight? Ever really thought about it?

At the end of the 18th century, a kilogram was the mass of a cubic decimeter of water. In 1889, the 1st CGPM sanctioned the international prototype of the kilogram, made of platinum-iridium, and declared: This prototype shall henceforth be considered to be the unit of mass.

So for over 100 years, a single precious platinum-iridium cylinder in Sèvres, France, has served reliably as the kilogram standard for the world.

But as our technology increased this standard has become antiquated. By all other standards of measurement the weight standard is basically a "Model  T" compared to rocket ships.  The other standards are based on natural constants.

Take the meter- it is defined based on the speed of light. The definition is to fix the speed of light in vacuum at exactly 299 792 458 m·s^-1 (fairly precise here). As home inspectors we are always measuring.

How about a second- A second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of cesium 133 atom. Pretty accurate here also! Here too, home inspection is all about time.

So back to the lowly old kilogram, as NIST physicist Richard Steiner cautioned, "If somebody sneezed on that kilogram standard, all the weights in the world would be instantly wrong".

The Australians were weighing in also on this subject.

Many units in the SI system are defined relative to the kilogram so its stability is important. After the International Prototype Kilogram had been found to vary in mass over time, the International Committee for Weights and Measures (known also by its French-language initials CIPM) recommended in 2005 that the kilogram be redefined in terms of that elusive fundamental constant of nature. A final decision is expected in 2011 but has now been moved to 2014.

But now we have a new problem, contaminants have caused the International prototype kilogram to gain mass. 

Here we are with the quandary, what do we really weigh?                                                                                                                                

 I think I may have to sneeze a few times, a new weight reduction program.

Hope my ladder is rated correctly for my weight, but what is their standard? Hmm.

Just a Wenatchee Home Inspector weighing in on the Subject!

NCW Home Inspections, LLC  is located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington.

NCW Home Inspections LLC-509-670-9572